Survival Mutant Style
by Leonaria Dragonbane
Summary: Two mutants lost in the jungle with thirty girls and young children have to provide for them and keep them safe.  Can they do it without killing each other.  Think Man Woman Wild - with more angst. Victor Creed/OC.
1. Chapter 1

For all of you who have been waiting, its not as easy without a co conspirator to bounce ideas off of, but I've finally started something completely new, yes its Victor, a combination of Wolverine Origins Victor/Comicverse Victor.

I don't own them, and after watching the new Iron Man movie, I have Victor in my head after a long nap, awake and screaming so here we go again. They are the property of Marvel Universe with the exception of any original characters I create, and dear fans, you know I will.

Call this a Man Woman Wild with mutants if you will...well sorta, they aren't married and don't even like each other - yet.

XXXXXXX

Chapter One

The jungle rain dripped down the back of her neck as she sat in the Y of the tree branches watching for any type of game to come down the small trail to the lake. She had over thirty mouths to feed, most of them small children, and one a big huge baby. She didn't know what was worse, the fact that she'd been the one that hadn't want to leave him behind, or the fact that in spite of his horrible reputation, he was such a frail patient.

She spotted the first wild pig and grinned as a large suckling sprinted from the underbrush behind her, at least they would eat tonight, and hopefully be able to move on by morning - if the big baby could move.

She waited patiently for the momma pig to start to root under the tree she was in, and when it was right under her, where she had a clean shot, she dropped the huge rock she'd carried up the tree with her down on the porcine head. It stunned the pig long enough for her to drop down and slit its throat with the small obsidian blade she'd made at the lake camp. The suckling had run back into the underbrush but the pig at her feet would still feed them.

She gutted the animal with her knife, digging a small hole in the jungle floor for the entrails. After cleaning out the body cavity she tied the feet together with strong jungle vines and slipped a strong tree limb under the vines and hoisted the tree limb up onto her back and shoulders. The pig weighed close to four hundred pounds, gutted, and she hoped the little girl that could start fire could start one in this wet rainforest.

She tromped as silently as she could back to the camp with her burden and watched a few moments from the underbrush as the smaller children, none of them under the age of twelve huddled around a small fire, the older children, she was glad to see, were following her instructions and finding large leaves from the trees and brush and making bed piles. It would be dark soon, and they were going to need their rest for the long hike in the morning.

XXXXXXX

He woke up and groaned. The last thing he remembered was the lab, being strapped down, and the excruciating pain as they tried to bond the metal to his bones. He felt weak, something he wasn't going to admit to anyone, and tried to push himself up off his back into a somewhat sitting position. The pain was almost more than even he could stand and he blacked out for a moment. When his head cleared he was being supported by two young frails, barely at the edge or just out of their teen years. He snarled and tried to take a swipe at one of them, but she laughed and just helped him to his feet and over to a small fire. He was surrounded by frails - frails and cubs and he had no idea how he'd gotten here.

"Leave me alone." He snarled, or tried to, it came out as more of a whimper.

"I told them to keep an eye on you and when you woke up to make sure you made it to the fire and got something to eat." A voice said from across the fire. He sniffed the air but even his senses were not normal at the moment, he couldn't smell anything but roasting meat.

"Who're you?" He grumbled, trying to remember what had happened.

"It's not important right now, all you need to know is you're safe, the lab is a smoldering pile of ruins, and we're the only thing between you and starvation so you'd better eat." She stood up and walked around the fire and handed him a large piece of roasted meat on a tree leaf.

He grabbed the food, his stomach was growling worse than it had when waiting for execution in Vietnam. He filed that thought away, he was going to try to remember something more important but his mind was consumed by the protein he was forcing down his throat.

"Slowly, I don't need you sick again. I need you on your feet by morning Sabretooth. We're moving camp and heading north east like you suggested so I need you on your feet we can't carry you to the coast." She snarled at him. He was taken aback for a second - she snarled.

"Do I know you?" He asked.

"No more than you know any of us lab rats, we were all locked up in there together, you helped us escape."

"I can't remember."

"I know. They did something to you in there, all we heard was you screaming for hours."

"I don't scream."

"I beg to differ." She said blandly as she sat back down across the fire and grabbed a piece of meat for herself. "The kids are asleep, the older girls are on watch, I'm sitting watch overnight so eat and try to get some rest."

XXXXXX

He watched her moving across the fire, he couldn't believe some frail had killed the pig he was eating. She moved like a clumsy ox, at least while he was watching. Either she didn't realize that he could see in the dark or she thought the fire would blind his night sight because as soon as she was outside the radius of the fire, her movement changed, sleek and compact as she checked on the cubs, not making a sound to wake them, avoiding any loose stone on the lake shore. He sniffed the air and could smell her, like something native to these jungles, wild, raw, and deadly. He scented the change as she came back into the firelight. She just smelled like a human frail. His senses were still off - either that or...

"How do you do it?"

"Do what?" she said as she flopped back down on the log she was using for a chair.

"Hide it like that?"

"Hide what?"

"Your mutation, stupid."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit. Every one of these frails and cubs is a mutant, I can smell it, and yes I remember the lab now, and everything in there was a mutant, including you."

She just shrugged. "It's a long story."

"It's a long time til dawn, and I ain't got anything better to do."

"My dad, he's in the Army, career. When I was a kid, we were his ornaments, to show off, to have this picture perfect family, be there when he came home from a deployment, forget about while he was gone. My mom, she dealt with it with booze, she was a functioning alcoholic, we never were in any danger from her, my brother and I. She mostly drank at night. When we were little, it was fun, going to the parties and welcome home events, and when Dad was home, Mom paid more attention."

She looked into the fire. "I guess I was about ten when it started, I woke up one night and could smell the alcohol from her room. She was always very careful to hide it from us, but I could smell every place she had it hidden in the house. I never said anything about the smells, but everything smelled different from that point on. My dad came home about a month later, and we started the family camping trips."

She grabbed a stick and poked the fire a bit, then threw some more wood on. He leaned back against the log behind him and stretched his legs out, crossing his ankles. He didn't know where this story was leading, but as he'd said it was going to be a long night.

"It was on one of the camping trips the hearing kicked in, I could hear my parents inside the RV they used. My dad wouldn't camp on the ground for fun he'd say, that was for us kids. I could hear them, hear him inside the RV, hear every word, every blow, every whimper from my mom. He was yelling about something that had happened years before, while he was on a deployment, something about he didn't care what she said, it was still an affair and how could he know that brat out there was even his."

She looked at him across the fire. "I found out later my mom was raped while he was on one of his deployments, but he blamed her for it. We came back from that trip, to a mess in base housing, one of the guys in his unit was being discharged, because his son had sprouted horns and a tail. My dad made sure we knew that any oddities would meet with swift punishment in our house. My brother...he joined the Army to keep Dad from finding out he was gay. I was about fifteen when my dad decided that as a girl I was a good punching bag too. The first time I guess he thought he hadn't hit me hard enough when I got up and went to my room. I learned lessons quick, and I don't know if it was desperation, or to keep him from killing me the second time, but somehow I had control over the healing. I could heal the internal stuff and leave the bruises so he'd think he'd done a good job, and it kept him from hitting Mom as much, so when he was home, I'd pick at him, keep him pissed at me, to give her a break."

"He wasn't your father was he, biologically?"

"No, my father is a rapist." She said softly.

"Did they catch the guy that raped your mom?"

"Yeah actually. He's in prison. He'd raped several women that summer, I know of at least three other kids, and all of us are some kind of mutant."

"So you just hide it?"

"Yeah. If Dad ever found out, he'd kill me."

"You're an adult now, why should he care?"

"He still wants his picture perfect family. My brother's funeral was last year, he had done everything in his power to prove he was just as good a soldier as my dad, all the way to throwing himself on and IED to save the guys in his unit. My dad never found out that when he was home, and away from dad he had a partner he'd been with since high school, at least he didn't find out 'til the funeral. He disowned my brother at the funeral, in front of his unit, his partner, my mom...and I know my brother was his child. He'd kill me if he found out I was a freak."

"You're not a freak." he hissed over the fire.

"Yeah, that's why we were locked up and used as lab rats...because we're not freaks." She hissed back. "Get some sleep, its going to be a long walk tomorrow."

"Why, this is a good place."

"Yeah - you seem to remember the lab now, think about it. You killed them, all of them, freed us, and don't think we won't hold you to your promise to help us, but someone has to know what that lab is for, someone is going to miss them - and us and come looking. I'm not going to sit here like a sitting duck, waiting on them to come round us up again."

"Good reason." She glared at him.

"Besides it was your idea to move on in the morning..." She snapped.

"Fine we moved out in the morning." He closed his eyes and leaned on the log.

He could hear her moving around, far less clumsily and hid a small smile. She might think she was a freak - but she moved with the grace of a jaguar, he decided that he would call her that.

"Hey Jags...I ain't the only one who needs sleep."

"Jags?" She snapped.

"You'll figure it out. I sleep light, nothin's gonna sneak up on us. Get some sleep. Its gonna be a long walk tomorrow."

He listened until she settled down and her breathing became even. She was a smart one, and that skill of controlling the healing of the mutation, and being able to hide her scent was a good one, and something he'd never thought possible.


	2. Chapter 2

For all of you who have been waiting, its not as easy without a co conspirator to bounce ideas off of, but I've finally started something completely new, yes its Victor, a combination of Wolverine Origins Victor/Comicverse Victor.

I don't own them, and after watching the new Iron Man movie, I have Victor in my head after a long nap, awake and screaming so here we go again. They are the property of Marvel Universe with the exception of any original characters I create, and dear fans, you know I will.

Call this a Man Woman Wild with mutants if you will...well sorta, they aren't married and don't even like each other - yet.

Chapter 2

He watched as the needles descended again. How much adamantium did they have to keep trying like this. The last round had nearly killed him and he didn't think he could take it again. Jimmy boy had taken to his metal skeleton in one try, but his body kept rejecting it.

He screamed again as the searing hot metal was injected into his body, the scream cut to a gargle as they filled the tank again. His body kept forcing the metal out into the tank causing it to burn off faster than they could replace it. He looked up at the masked faces over the tank and screamed again as his vision faded to black.

He took a swipe at the restraints holding him down and was rewarded with a yelp, and bright sunlight in his eyes.

"It's a good thing she has a healing ability, you nearly took her arm off." who was that talking, she sounded familiar, he shook his head to clear it. Oh yeah, Jags.

"We need to get moving." She had all the young ones tied together with vines in groups, and those tied to some of the older girls.

"Anything to eat." He snarled as he tried to sit up. He was as weak as he'd been yesterday, but more things were clearing up in his mind. He remembered being captured right after the Statue, he wasn't sure what was worse, knowing Jimmy Boy didn't remember him, or feeling stupid for letting them get the drop on him because he was worried about the Runt. He hadn't seen Jimmy since the reactor until the truck, and he'd been surprised that his brother was protecting the target. It hadn't stopped him, knowing that the Runt was involved, but it had bothered him that there was no reaction, no recognition in his brother's eyes. Not then, and not at the top of the statue. James had even called him "bub"...not Victor, hadn't railed at him about why he was doing this, That had bothered him the most. James was his conscience...and even his conscience didn't know him anymore.

"No it was finished last night, now get moving Creed." She snapped.

"Bite me, Jags." He snapped back, he didn't want her to know he couldn't move yet.

"We don't have time, I heard choppers in the direction of the lab and I want to get under the cover of trees before they start looking for us. I just hope they don't have anything to scan under the canopy." She snarled. He looked at her, really looked at her for the first time and realized, that even out in the middle of nowhere, and with her mutation not hidden from view, she was beautiful.

"Help me up then." He snarled.

"Help you - get your ass up."

"Damn it, give me a hand."

"I'm not stupid enough to touch you, Creed, now get up."

"I can't alright, I need help." He growled the last, his gut wrenching at having to admit it.

"This better not be a trick, we don't have time for them." She snarled back as she knelt down next to him and draped his arm across her shoulder. She slipped hers under his back and stood, and he felt himself being easily lifted off the ground and onto his feet. He leaned on her for support as he tried to put one foot in front of the other. She managed to get him under the trees and a few hundred yards down the path before he heard the helicopters fly over the lake. He looked back, and couldn't see any signs that they'd even been there.

"You did good, kid." he muttered under his breath.

"Shut up and keep moving, just because we cleaned up the camp doesn't mean they won't know we were there." She snarled as she pushed him to keep moving. It took about an hour for his healing to try to kick in again and he was able to stand on his own. He didn't know what was happening to him, he knew it had to have something to do with his body rejecting the metal, but he'd never been this weak.

By mid afternoon he was able to walk on his own and she moved up to the front of the group. He was in the middle surrounded by cubs, and three of the older girls were at the rear, covering their tracks. He didn't know how they were doing it, they had to be using some sort of mutation, but when he looked back there wasn't a branch broken, or a leaf out of place, no sign they'd ever passed this way. He looked at the ground and watched as vines and deadfall moved themselves to fill their tracks.

He heard running water ahead of them, but she turned away from it, deeper into the jungle. They stopped in an area with several larger trees and enough room for them to spread out without bumping into each other. He leaned against a tree to rest.

"Okay, Cara, you and Rena get some vines. I'm going back to that bamboo stand and bring some back here so we can make a small fire and build some bed platforms, I want the kids off the ground tonight. 'Shel, you and Misty take these and go back to the stream and fill them up, stay under cover and don't step out into the open if you can help it. I haven't heard the choppers in a while, but I don't want anyone taking any chances." She sounded like a general directing her troops.

"Trish, you and Carlie stay here and keep the kids busy, have them clear a spot down to the dirt for the fire, gather up any dry leaves and tinder they can find, I showed you how to do that yesterday. Remember don't eat any of the plants, we don't know what is and isn't poisonous here yet. And someone keep an eye on the baby and keep him out of trouble." She slipped off into the underbrush. BABY...he knew that had to be a dig at him. He'd show her baby.

He pushed up and off of the tree and nearly fell over. One of the older cubs, a boy took his hand and lead him to a rock near where they were building the fire pit. The cubs had cleared the ground and were digging smaller rocks out and putting them around the bare ground. He sat on the rock and leaned back on a tree behind it. He'd show her baby tomorrow. Right now he was just too tired.

XXXXXX

She made several trips back to the bamboo stand, bringing back several large trunks in each trip. Cara and Rena remembered her lesson on how to build a vine support and Rena had taken the knife that they'd made at the lake and was splitting the bamboo into planks to make platforms.

"Save some to make cups out of." She said as she dropped off another load. She didn't want to completely use up this stand, she just wanted two good sized platforms for the kids up off the ground. She glared at the lazy cat sitting on the rock, he could be doing something to help. They'd been nursing him back to health for almost a week now. Yesterday had been his first day awake since the lab. She knew they'd hurt him, bad, at the lab but damn it he was Sabretooth, and she needed him back on his feet.

"Jags." He growled at her.

"What the hell is Jags and why do you keep calling me that." She snarled back as she walked over and stood with her hands on her hips.

"I don't know your name and you move like a jaguar...so Jags it is." He snarled back.

She jumped...He had no idea how close he was, she thought he'd somehow picked up her nickname from high school. "Its Janelle."

"Ha..so it is Jags." he grinned a toothy grin up at her.

She just glared at him. "Can't you do anything useful, I don't have time to play word games with you."

"I was just gonna suggest that I might try some hunting, see what I can catch for dinner. The rest helped and I think I can manage that." He grinned.

"I'll believe it when I see it, we've been lugging you around for far too long, its about time you did something." She snarled again and stormed off in the direction of the bamboo.

XXXXXXX

He snarled low at her retreating back. He was going to show her.

He pushed himself to his feet, and grabbed the tree for support as he swayed a bit. He shook his head and glared in the direction she'd gone. There wouldn't be any prey in that direction, she was having to make too much noise dragging those bamboo trees back to the camp. He watched as Cara and Rena built the bed platforms, and watched where they went to grab more vines. No prey in that direction either because of the noise. The two she'd sent back to the stream came back with another load of water that they poured into bamboo cooking pots near the small fire. They were sterilizing water as fast as they could to get it into the smaller children. He decided to follow them back to the stream and work his way along it looking for prey.

They kept looking over their shoulders at him, glaring if he stumbled or stopped to lean on a tree for support. He just glared back, and snarled and they left him alone. He watched them work their way down to the stream, careful to stay away from any breaks in the trees above. He followed their example, except heading upstream away from where they'd been pulling water. If there was anything around to kill that is where it would be.

He moved silently through the forest, stopping to rest and sniff the air. He caught a scent that seemed promising and followed it. He found a group of tapir resting near the bank of the small stream. He knew he could probably catch one, and that would feed them at least tonight. He watched as they moved, startled toward the water. He heard the chopper next and pulled back deeper under the brush. They were still up there. He hoped stopping and camping was a good idea.

He waited until the chopper faded in his hearing before moving in on the pack. He singled out a large animal, and moved towards it, keeping downwind so it wouldn't scent him. He was almost on it when she dropped out of the tree over head and pinned his prey to the ground, a crude spear pinning the porcine like animal to the ground with her weight.

"You move to slow." She snarled. He snarled back, the snarl of a predatory denied its prey.

"Shut up, help me clean this thing and get it back to camp. Those choppers aren't going away any time soon and we need to get them fed and some sleep so we can keep moving in the morning."

He snarled, but leaned in and popped his claws to gut the animal to clean it. They gleamed dull grey in the diffuse light of the jungle. He just stared at them in shock.

She snorted and pulled a piece of sharp obsidian out of a pocket of the fatigue pants she was wearing. "Admire them later, lets get this thing cleaned up."


	3. Chapter 3

For all of you who have been waiting, its not as easy without a co conspirator to bounce ideas off of, but I've finally started something completely new, yes its Victor, a combination of Wolverine Origins Victor/Comicverse Victor.

I don't own them, and after watching the new Iron Man movie, I have Victor in my head after a long nap, awake and screaming so here we go again. They are the property of Marvel Universe with the exception of any original characters I create, and dear fans, you know I will.

Call this a Man Woman Wild with mutants if you will...well sorta, they aren't married and don't even like each other - yet.

Chapter 3

He was quiet on the trip back to camp. They'd split the kill in half after cleaning, to be easier to carry and so they wouldn't make as much noise. Janelle kept looking over her shoulder, she knew something had to be wrong. They had to be following them, or searching for them. They'd seen and heard the choppers yesterday and she'd heard them three or four times during the march today. She glared at the back of the man in front of her. He'd promised her they would get the kids to safety. She didn't want to think about what other promises had been made, but she was going to hold him to his.

The girls and young ones had done a good job on the camp sight, the bed platforms were bigger than she expected and that would mean they could all get off the jungle floor tonight. She put her half of the animal down on a bed of leaves near the fire and reached into her pocket for the obsidian blade she'd been carrying. It wasn't in the left pocket, so she reached into the right pocket. She let out a low snarl as she started patting down all of her pockets.

"Here, ya left it at the kill site." She glared at the man in front of her. His dull grey claws were loosely wrapped around the blade. She reached out to snatch it from him and he caught her wrist, and with a slight tug pulled her against him.

"I remember what happened in the lab, Jags. I'll keep my word, will you?"

She looked into his black eyes and snarled, but nodded. She'd keep her word if it killed her, if he killed her. She wasn't going to let these children die in this hell. He gave her an appraising look, then leaned in close to her ear, she trembled at the brush of his breath against her neck as much as at his words.

"I'm lookin' forward to it." He stepped back and let go of her wrist. He glared at it until she turned her healing factor back on, and the five holes closed up and the blood dried. he nodded, and walked back over to his rock, sat down, stretched out his legs and crossed his ankles, stretched his arms up over his head, locked his metal tipped fingers behind his head, leaned back against the tree, all without ever taking his eyes from her. He flashed her a grin, showing his fangs without remorse and she just snarled, and knelt down to start cutting pieces of flesh from the animal at her feet, the whole time wishing it were his flesh she was carving up. There were small spears of green bamboo to skewer the meat on. She cut it into smaller strips and started leaning the loaded skewers over the small bed of coals in the ring of stones. She started at a roll of thunder and was grateful the girls had remembered to put leaf roofs over the bed platforms, it was going to be a wet night.

She glared again at the man leaning against the tree but he'd gone to sleep.

_She was huddled in the back of the cage, waiting for something, she didn't know what. They'd given her a complete exam when she'd been brought here. The nurse that had drawn her blood had laughed when the puncture didn't heal. "You don't think we don't already know what you are. Get used to it freak, you will be here a good long time."_

_They'd stripped her of anything that reminded her that she was still human too, her clothes, her ID from the school where she taught, even the small cross necklace that had been a gift from her grandmother when she was six. _

_She huddled in the cold air, no blanket, no means of keeping warm unless she allowed her mutation to go completely active. Then she'd have the soft layer of fur she'd worked all her life to hide. She refused to do it, she'd just be cold. She still had control over that._

_Life in the cage was just that. She could hear the screams from the lab, smell the pain and blood, and when the angle was right could look in and see the profile of the man they were torturing. He'd died six times in that tank, each time he'd come back weaker than before, until the last time, something inside him had snapped. She watched his face as he went from peaceful death to full rage. She watched as he surged up out of the tank, could smell the pure adrenaline rush he was on as he sprang around the room like a large cat after prey. She watched the blood spraying across the room and then, like lightning he was in front of her cage._

_"Who're you." he snarled, sniffing the air like an animal._

_"Not important, are you going to kill me." She looked him straight in his eyes._

_"No." She winced at the squeal of the metal around the lock as he twisted it from the cage._

_"There are others that need help." She said._

_"I know." She opened the cage and started after him. "There's plenty of dead, get some clothes on." he snarled._

_"I need to know you'll help us." She said._

_"Help...I don't help." He snarled back. She let her claws out and sprang at his neck. _

_He shook her off and slammed her against a wall, one hand wrapped around her throat._

_"Don't do that again."_

_"Help us get to safety." She challenged him._

_"What do I get out of it."_

_"Help us, promise me you'll help us." She snarled back._

_His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Alright, I promise I'll get you and the thirty odd other mutants I smell here to safety. But I want something in return."_

_"What."_

_"You."_

_"No."_

_"Then no deal."_

_"What do you want from me." She glared at him._

_He ran his eyes down her naked body, and his free hand grabbed one of her feral claws._

_"I want you..." He'd given her a half grin and released her hand, before stroking her cheek with a gleaming grey talon. "...to scream for me."_

_"So you want sex." He leaned in and grabbed her mouth with his, his teeth biting if she didn't give him what he wanted. She moaned against him, feeling her body respond. _

_"More than that, but its a start." He snarled against her lips._

_"Fine, if you help us get to safety, I will have sex with you, I promise." She snarled back._

_"Deal, now get some clothes on while I free the rest, and collect clothes for them, they're probably not in much better shape than you."_

"Janelle, the meat looks almost done." Trish said next to her.

"Sorry was thinking about something." She pulled the skewers back and started handing them to the younger children first.

XXXXXX

Oh yes he remembered the promises made in the lab, and was very much looking forward to her keeping hers. He wasn't completely sure how long they'd been out here but he knew that if they hadn't been caught in the first few days, they were far more likely to make it out alive, especially with the girls that were hiding their trail.

He watched her under half closed eyes as she prepped the meat to cook. Someone had taught her well, probably that bastard father she'd told him about. She knew what it took to survive in the wild, and was keeping a fairly large group in enough calories to keep going. The clothes she'd scrounged at the lab had been mostly military surplus type stuff, fatigue pants, brown t-shirts, but there'd been no shoes or boots, especially for the little ones. He knew they were going to have to stop soon, for an extended period of time to let him make some essentials that they needed.

Her little obsidian knife was good, but they needed more blades, better blades, as well as foot wear for most of them. He could get by barefoot in the jungle, had done it many times in his life, and somehow he didn't think it would be an issue for her, but they needed to protect the frail ones.

Now that he remembered her promise, he watched her as she worked through the tough meat on the kill. She wasn't bad to look at, and from the way she moved when she allowed her mutation to be active he knew she'd be fun to play with in bed. She was just going to have to get used to that mutation being active all the time, he wasn't going to let the only other person he'd ever found like him and Jimmy Boy die because she wouldn't leave her damned mutation on.

He winced at the thought of Jimmy Boy. He still didn't know exactly what was going on there, but when they made it back to the rest of the world he intended to find out.

One of the little ones brought him some skewers of meat and he sat up long enough to eat. That was one of the other things bothering him. He still wasn't very strong, and it seemed that he was weaker in the daylight. He needed time to go to ground and heal. He was going to have to try to convince her in the morning they needed to set up someplace for a couple days at least.

He leaned back when his belly was full. He'd deal with it in the morning, he was feeling fine at the moment and she looked tired. Tonight she was going to sleep, if he had to sit on her to make her do it.

"Creed you've got first watch, I'm getting some shut eye." She said quietly across the small fire.

"Quit readin' my mind kid." He grinned back at her. "I've got this."


	4. Chapter 4

For all of you who have been waiting, its not as easy without a co conspirator to bounce ideas off of, but I've finally started something completely new, yes its Victor, a combination of Wolverine Origins Victor/Comicverse Victor.

I don't own them, and after watching the new Iron Man movie, I have Victor in my head after a long nap, awake and screaming so here we go again. They are the property of Marvel Universe with the exception of any original characters I create, and dear fans, you know I will.

Call this a Man Woman Wild with mutants if you will...well sorta, they aren't married and don't even like each other - yet.

Chapter 4

She woke up the next morning to the fire out, and Creed snoozing against his damned tree. They'd saved back some of the kill to eat for breakfast, she just hoped those leaf packets he'd made to keep them in had kept the bugs our or it was just a waste. She had expected him to wake her up about midnight so she could take the fire watch, damn him. Now they were going to have to start another fire before they could sterilize enough water to drink to hydrate the kids before moving out. She kicked Rena gently to wake her up.

"We're going to need more water." she hissed. "The baby let the water go out so I'm going to wake up Tonya and see if we can get another one started this morning. She crawled off the bed platform and moved to wake the young teen.

"No need." He snapped from his tree. "I sterilized enough last night and its packed in bamboo canteens. The meat's packed up too, as soon as we get them up and bundled we need to get moving. I want to cover some ground this morning." She glared at him.

"Well...you can do something then." She stood with her hands on her hips.

"Yeah as long as the sun ain't up. Someone's gonna have to help me get movin' this morning though." He groaned. She looked at him. he almost looked worse than he had the first morning after the lab.

"Overdid it huh." She walked over and slipped an arm under his back and draped his arm over her shoulders, this was getting to be a morning routine.

"I was fine till the sun came up and the I just dropped." He said softly as she lifted him. "I ain't sure what's happened, I ain't ever had an issue with sunlight before."

"It may be the stuff in your blood still." She said, actually concerned. He did look almost worse than he had after the lab, and he'd been out cold for almost 3 days. They'd had to drag him to the lake camp.

"Don't worry, Jags, you'll get your piece of me." he growled at her.

"Like I'd want it."

"Liar."

She glared at him but shrugged, he was right, he wasn't bad to look at, and when his healing factor was working, he certainly knew how to take care of things. The only stories she'd ever heard about him had been full of violence and rage, but the man with them was calm, observant, and calculating, not what she'd expected at all.

"Okay fine...you're not the only one looking forward to getting back to civilization." She muttered.

He chuckled low, and then coughed bending almost double. He was worse than he'd been after the lab.

"Rena get some of those bamboo poles down and rig the vines into a litter, we're gonna have to carry him this morning."

"NO! I'm just getting this shit out of my system. By the time you get them ready to go, I'll be on my feet." She looked at him concerned, but the determined look in his eye made her nod and leave him leaning against the tree as she moved to help break camp.

"We're going to have to stop someplace for a few days." He said as she was tromping the ashes into the dirt to hide them before covering the fire spot with loose ground debris.

"Why?" She didn't question the wisdom of it, just wanted to know his reasoning. She'd been thinking the same thing since yesterday when they found the stream.

"The cubs need foot coverings, we need to stockpile some meat we can carry, make some kind of carriers for us to use and make some more blades. I'd suggest looking for a cave or other kind of permanent, low effort shelter. One, it will take less work to keep us going for days if we don't have to maintain something we build. Two, if we're inside a cave or something, if they are using infrared scanners it will be harder to pick us up underground. Three, we need the rest, all of us." She nodded to all three of his points, the exact same reasons she'd been thinking of.

"The stream comes out of a cliff face about three miles upstream, I was planning on following the cliff face to see if we can find a cave system that might be useful for what you're talking about."

He grinned. "Your dad trained you well."

"My DAD is an asshole, don't think I want to be grateful for anything that bastard taught me." She snapped back.

"Hey - I agree with ya, but he did train you well." He popped a piece of meat from his leaf pack into his mouth. "And ya can cook too."

XXXXXXXX

She was glaring at him, and he was really starting to like that glare. She was a challenge, that was for sure. He didn't quite know when he'd decided that he was going to keep this one, but with that healing factor, and her training, she'd make him a good mate. With Jimmy Boy's defection, he'd discovered he needed someone to keep him sane, to keep him from going berserk all the time. The last few years with Magneto were a blur in his mind, full of animal instincts, and instructions couched in terms an grade school child would understand. He was more than that, more than that animal, and something had happened in that lab, pushed the animal back to the back of his brain.

His body was weak, and other than having to get his brain unscrambled from what they'd done, he was finding it was surprisingly clear. He watched as the kids broke camp and put on their vine harnesses. He knew he needed to get these kids someplace safe, and that's when it hit him, he was thinking in human terms, kids, women, not frails and cubs. He hadn't thought that way in almost 70 years. The fog had started sometime during World War II, that's when Jimmy Boy had started trying to talk him down, pull him back, tell him he was being too fierce, to hard, too deadly. Vietnam had been hell, he'd been almost completely animal until the firing squad. Striker's deal had just given him another chance to let the animal loose.

He could still remember the pressure in his chest, watching Jimmy Boy walk away from him in that jungle. The feeling of abandonment, betrayal, loss, knowing his brother had given up on him, turned him over to the beast inside his own body, given up on all the years of keeping him human. Part of him had understood, wanted to follow Jimmy down that path, but the animal wouldn't let him.

They were ready to move out, and the meat from his leaf pack was almost gone. He should be able to walk, to follow them someplace safe where he could get this shit out of his system. He'd figured out what happened, almost. It had been an allergy, the first time they'd tried he'd died from hystamic shock, but they'd brought him back and tried again. The second time, they'd loaded him up with all the antihistamic drugs they could find, and they'd not tried to coat his bones, they'd forced the needles down inside, and burned out his marrow with the adamantium, his body had forced the metal out again, but the reaction wasn't as strong. The third time they'd worked from his extremities back, starting with his hands and feet. He glanced down at the silver claws on his toes as he walked through the jungle. The only part of his body that had ever accepted the metal, his damned claws. The fourth time they'd tried for a full body overkill, and the metal had made it to his brain. That had been when his mind had cleared, and the first time he'd been in control, able to choose if the animal was going to get lose. He'd ripped up the lab, and if it hadn't been for the scents of the females he would have torn out of there and not looked back.

He looked around him. Most of them had been afraid, even Jags had been afraid of him at first, but had the guts to confront him. They had all become less afraid over time, and he still wasn't sure how long, and somehow he was comfortable with them, even the young ones. He'd never liked kids, even Jimmy had been a mewling pest until those claws showed up. But these kids never complained, did what they were told, made themselves useful and didn't talk back or whine. They also didn't talk or laugh or tease among themselves and were always tired, something that was worrying him immensely, and another reason for the long break, if they could get it.

They found the cave system early mid afternoon, just in time to get things ready for the night ahead. He watched as she went in and checked it out, snarling a bit as she put herself in danger, again for them. His mate should be taking care of the cubs, he should be the one putting himself in danger. He shook his head, the fog was trying to come back again, he'd been fighting it for days, but it was easier to push it back than it had been in over 30 years.

XXXXX

She stepped back out of the cool cave system into the hot humid jungle air and knew they'd found a camp for a few days, She nodded to him and the other girls and they started helping the kids up into the caves. There were five good sized smaller caves around a central chamber big enough to divide everyone out and give them a chance to stretch and get some good sleep. There was even a water source inside the cave, they'd still have to sterilize it but at least they wouldn't have to expose anyone to go looking for water.

He came in last, and stood next to her looking out into the jungle.

"Tonight I hunt and you rest." She said softly.

"Bring back everything...I'm gonna need stuff to work with." He said.

She nodded. "There's flint in the cave, have some knives ready to work when I get back." She glanced up and grinned at him. "And we need to talk."

"Yes we do." He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers.


	5. Chapter 5

For all of you who have been waiting, its not as easy without a co conspirator to bounce ideas off of, but I've finally started something completely new, yes its Victor, a combination of Wolverine Origins Victor/Comicverse Victor.

I don't own them, and after watching the new Iron Man movie, I have Victor in my head after a long nap, awake and screaming so here we go again. They are the property of Marvel Universe with the exception of any original characters I create, and dear fans, you know I will.

Call this a Man Woman Wild with mutants if you will...well sorta, they aren't married and don't even like each other - yet.

Chapter 5

She came back with not one but three kills that evening, the cave was cool enough that they could cook and store the food for several days, and with that much meat no one would have to leave the shelter of the stone for at least two. The tapir hides were soft and she'd left them attached to the animals. She'd only removed the innards and put them in a leaf pouch like the ones they'd carried food in today and he grinned. He'd have cordage and leather to make the little ones some shoes at least.

"I can get more tomorrow." She said as she watched him with a flint knife and his metal claws carefully pull the skin away from the meat.

"No, you need rest." He said softly as he worked. She watched the intense look on his face as he concentrated on sorting the entrails. He set the stomachs and intestines aside, then cracked the skull of each animal and pulled out the brains and put them in another pile. "I'm gonna go clean these and hang them someplace to dry." he said as he grabbed the pile of intestine.

She took the rest of the carcasses to the fire area. His voice drifted back to her, "Save me the bones I'm gonna need them."

She quickly cleaned the meat off the bones, stacking them neatly to one side on a bed of leaves to absorb the blood. He came back from the underground stream that fed the cave and started stretching the intestines out along one side of the cave. When he was done he came over and sat down by the fire with her.

"That'll be enough for the eight to ten youngest to get some shoes out of. The meat will keep us two to three days to rest. Then we can go out and get a few more. I'd like to get you all in some kind of foot covering, and maybe get a couple quick tanned backpacks to carry stuff in."

"That sounds like a reasonable plan; do you think it will be safe enough to stay here that long?" She asked as she adjusted meat on the fire. She still had piles of meat to cook.

"Yeah, there's no way any air borne scanner or survey device will find us in this cave, and we'll post lookouts so that if anyone comes close, we'll hear them. Put the girls with the track hiding skills to hiding the entrance of the caves and they'll never find us."

"We can't stay here long."

"I need a week – maybe ten days." He said softly.

"How long if I help."

"Five to seven days, I'll have ta teach ya how to cut it and sew it."

"I can learn." She grinned at him and was surprised by a strange, almost contemplative look on his face. "What?"

"I do believe that's the first time you've smiled…at me." He whispered with a low purring growl.

"We're not safe yet." She hissed back.

"For now we are, but no I ain't gonna hold you to your promise yet." He grinned his toothy fanged grin and started going through the meat for large pieces of fat that he trimmed off with his claws. "Need the fat to tan the hides, these things have enough that I can take a bit?"

She nodded as he took the brains and the fat and started mixing them with a piece of stone in one of the bamboo bowls they'd made at the last camp. "You're going to tan the hides with that…?"

"Yep, every animal has exactly enough brain matter to tan its own hide." He glanced up at her and gave her a fierce grin. "Even humans."

She shuddered – somehow knowing he'd tested that theory at some point or another.

"So you said we needed to talk." She handed Trish a bundle of meat from the fire to take to the kids to eat.

"Yeah – these kids need to relax a bit, need some fun and games, laughter, even when Jimmy Boy was a kid I made sure he laughed." He said softly.

"Who's Jimmy Boy?" She asked.

"My younger brother, I had ta take care of him from about the age of eleven or so, it was me and him against the world, at least until the last twenty to twenty five years or so."

"Tell me about him." She'd started another bunch of meat cooking and he looked at the pile yet to be processed.

"You got time for a long story I guess." He laughed and settled back, using the flint knife to scrape the inner membrane from the hide in his lap.

XXXXXXX

"Jimmy and I took off on our own when we were just kids. Our father was…killed and we weren't left with much else but each other. I had ta take care of him, really my whole life, but especially after that. He grew up, developed a lot of the same traits I have, and we ended up back to back a lot." He remembered the feel of Jimmy's shoulders against his, bullets and cannon balls or missiles flying, bodies piling up at their feet, bullets hitting them to no avail.

"Sounds like you were close."

"We were." He shook his head a little, trying to focus on the memories of his brother but all he could see was his back as Jimmy walked away from him. "We…ah…fought, both of us, in any war we could find, at least until…well a bad encounter with a commanding officer left us on a special team."

"What kind of team?" He could see she was really interested. He still didn't trust her enough to tell her everything but he wanted her to understand, wanted someone to understand about Jimmy, before he lost his mind like his brother had. He'd been fine for several weeks after the adamantium had been bonded to him, but Victor didn't know what'd happened after that, only that the last time he'd seen James there'd been no recognition in his eyes.

"Black ops stuff. We were looking for something, Stryker said…"

"STRYKER!" she shouted the word. Several of the older girls looked at her but she waved them away. "You worked for that bastard?"

"It was a long time ago. I actually left him about sixteen years ago. How do you know him?" She knew Stryker?

"He's the bastard that sent me to the lab."

"What?"

"I'd been captured in a military raid against…well against mutants and instead of keeping me, said he was tired of feral mutants but he had a friend in Brazil that was using them in a breeding program." Breeding program? There'd been more to the lab than just the adamantium then?

"What breeding program?"

"Us – "She pointed around the central cave at the older females. "bred to you."

He just nodded, that made sense. They wanted him to be like Jimmy, and then create more that they could turn in to soldiers.

"Anyway, Jimmy and I worked for Stryker until…we were in this village in Africa, Stryker ordered me to kill the village leader and James stopped me. Told me we hadn't signed on for it…told me he was done and walked away." He snapped the hide in his lap and grabbed a handful of the foul smelling mixture of brains and fat and started working it into the pores of the hide. She was skewering more meat, trimming it up with her small obsidian blade. "Try this, it should work better." He handed her one of the flint blades he'd made with a dulled handle and sharp point.

"Thanks. What happened then?"

"I don't want to think about it right now. I did shit I ain't proud of, all in the name of getting these." He held up his now metal claws. "Shit of it is, sixteen years ago I'da volunteered for this whole mess, now they do it when I don't want it, kinda pissed me off." He grinned at her and watched her flinch.

"You wanted the adamantium?"

"Yeah – but Stryker kept tellin' me by blood work kept sayin' I wouldn't survive it. Showed him huh?" This time he chuckled at what he imagined the look on Stryker's face would have been.

"Yeah, I only know one person that's survived it – he sometimes lives at the school where I teach." She said softly. He snapped his head to look at her.

"What school?"

"Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters in Westchester, New York." He snarled. How the fuck had he missed that?

"You teach for the Egg Head?" He glared at her. She was looking at him funny.

"Yes, I mean you fought some of the teachers while I was on a break, I had to go home and check on my mom."

"Fought teachers – and my OWN FUCKING BROTHER!" He roared the last at her.

"Brother…LOGAN!"

"James!"

"We call him Logan."

"You know James?" He wanted to shake her, to ask the million questions he had, why had James forgotten him, how had it happened, how much did she know?

"Well, actually I've only seen him once, and that was just a few seconds as Stryker's men were dragging me out of the school along with six of my students." She said. "I only knew it was him because of the blades sticking out of his hands."

"Yeah – they used to be bone." He muttered under his breath, remembering the feel of them breaking under his boot heel. "So Stryker attacked Xavier…Mags was right, there ain't anyplace safe for mutants."

"I can't believe you're Wolverine's brother?"

"That's a recent name, darlin', he's always been Jimmy Boy to me."

He glared at the ten holes in the leather. He'd gripped it too hard, and hoped there'd be enough left to make shoes for the kids.

"Do you know why?" He looked up at her.

"Why what?"

"Why he doesn't remember?"

"I know the rumors that flew around about it, that it was the trauma of the metal bonding that it messed with his head somehow."

_Just like its messin with mine._


	6. Chapter 6

For all of you who have been waiting, its not as easy without a co conspirator to bounce ideas off of, but I've finally started something completely new, yes its Victor, a combination of Wolverine Origins Victor/Comicverse Victor.

I don't own them, and after watching the new Iron Man movie, I have Victor in my head after a long nap, awake and screaming so here we go again. They are the property of Marvel Universe with the exception of any original characters I create, and dear fans, you know I will.

Call this a Man Woman Wild with mutants if you will...well sorta, they aren't married and don't even like each other - yet.

Chapter 6

The week in the cave had been a necessary and wonderful respite from the oppression of the jungle. He'd been right, the kids needed to relax, to laugh and play a while, and they all loved their new shoes - and new 'uncle'. She couldn't believe how well he handled having them around him all the time. He was patient, working diligently on the foot wrappings, she couldn't call them shoes. She'd refused a pair, but he was right they would help disguise the foot prints of the group and that would help the three exhausted girls who had exercised their powers more in the last three weeks than they had in their entire lives.

He'd finally asked her what happened after the lab, the time he couldn't remember, and she'd told him about carrying him for three days, about rare moments of lucidity where they'd discuss plans to get them all out alive, and hours of delirium and fever where they'd had to restrain him before he hurt one of them.

She hacked at the jungle vines over the path they were taking. They were low enough that his head could get tangled in them, although he'd taken to carrying a long staff to lean on in the mornings, and push vines out of the way in the afternoon. He was getting better, physically, but his eyes were haunted all the time, and he'd withdrawn into a snarling pain in her ass as soon as they got moving again. He'd made them all knives out of the flint they'd found in the cave, made her a makeshift machete as well as two good hunting blades and some spear points, although he'd taken over most of the hunting after four days in the cave.

They at least had enough food smoked and stored in the three backpacks he'd made to keep them going a couple days until they could find another safe hiding place - or the ocean, whichever came first. It meant they could move faster and farther with each day until the supplies ran out. He was wearing the largest backpack, and she was wearing one of the others. Trish and Carlie were alternating carrying the third, while Rana and Cara had two of the smallest children strapped to their backs, They were the reason they were moving and trying to move as quickly as possible. She could hear the rattle of their lungs from her place at the head of the group. Pneumonia, they needed to get them to someplace with real medicine, soon.

"I smell salt." He said as he pushed closer to her through the kids.

"So do I." She pointed a little more north than east of the rough path they'd been trying to follow.

"The little ones need to rest, lets find a place to stop, and I'll scout." he growled at her.

"Okay." she just wasn't in the mood for whatever was bothering him. He hadn't talked to her in days except to issue orders and push them through the jungle with well placed cutting remarks.

She could see more sunlight through the trees ahead and they stepped out into a large clearing, so large she would call it a meadow. He signaled her and the kids to stay back in the trees as he stepped out into the open. She saw movement through the high grass, and two men came into view. They waved and walked toward him with no fear and she hoped he'd let them get close enough for her to hear what was going on, damn him for staying downwind of her.

They talked for a few minutes then one of them took off running through the grass. The next thing she heard was the absolute most welcome sound she'd heard in a long time. It was the sound of an engine turning over, and a large flatbed farm truck drove into view.

He walked over to where she was crouching, he and the other man chatting casually in Portuguese.

"Jags, there's a phone up at the plantation house, they're going to drive us up there, and there's a doctor in town who can look at the little ones." She felt mostly relief and stood up, leading the children to him.

"Call Xavier, have him get help down here." He said to her softly.

"I was planning on it." She said.

"Good, you and the kids will be safe now." He started to turn back to the jungle.

"And just where in the hell do you think you're going?" She snarled at him.

"I need ta think..."

"Well you can do that on the plane."

"Yeah...right."

"YOU BASTARD! You made a promise...made me make a promise and by all that's holy I am NOT breaking a damned promise." She shouted.

"I ain't exactly welcome at that posh school..."

She slapped him claws out and watched as the slashes across his face healed quickly. He grabbed her hand, nearly crushing her wrist in his grip, yanking her forward against his chest. She snarled right in his face, barely feeling the pain in her wrist. He wasn't going to walk out on her now.

"Don't you ever do that again." he snarled low.

"You'd have to be around for me to do it again, you coward." She hissed back. She felt herself spinning and nearly blacked out when he slammed her against a tree, his heavy body pinning here there, knee between her thighs, one hand still around her wrist, the other around her throat. She could feel the prick of his claws, but just shook her head to clear it and just hissed and snarled at him.

"You just don't know when to quit do you?" He leaned in and pressed the claws in her neck deeper. She snarled again, but this time it was at the three girls ready to jump him from behind. This was between her and Sabretooth, she didn't want any other female getting involved.

XXXXXXXXX

She hung there, snapping and snarling, his claw wrapped around her throat and didn't seem in the least bit afraid of him. The only thing he could smell was rage and for some reason the three sneaking up on him just made her even more angry. He snarled, glancing over his shoulder at them, loosening his grip on her throat for a split second, and felt another set of claws dig in to his shoulder. He couldn't stop the grin from spreading. This frail was a challenge, or at least interesting for now. He turned his attention back to her.

"You're...getting...on...the plane" She ground out, and he was surprised that she could make any noise, most men would be unconscious from his grip by now. He eased the grip, wanting to hear this.

"I know..." she took a deep breath. "you're worried about what happened, worried you'll end up like Logan, but the Professor's helping him, he can help you too." His hand slipped from her throat and crept across her shoulder and down her arm to her other wrist. Her skin was soft, and even after almost six weeks in the jungle she still smelled damned good.

"I nearly killed three of his precious students, what makes you think he'd help me?" He snarled as he got a grip on the claw imbedded in his shoulder. She didn't wince as he tried to crush her wrist, just tightened her hand, digging the claws in deeper. He ended up wincing first, and grabbing her throat with his other hand, releasing that wrist.

"What makes you think I want any help, frail?" He hissed as he leaned in, his face nearly brushing hers. All of his instincts screamed to mark the frail, take her right there. She was like him, even the rage, and he needed someone to watch his back, especially right now. Her move surprised him.

XXXXXX

His face was so close she could feel the brush of his whiskers against her skin. She didn't think, she let her instincts loose. She increased her grip on his shoulder and pulled instead of pushed. It surprised him enough to loosen the grip on her throat more and she leaned her head in and grabbed his bottom lip with her teeth. She heard him growl but she licked the captive flesh in her mouth and the grip on her throat and wrist both eased. She grabbed the hair on the back of his head, pulling him closer as she took possession of his mouth. He was awkward in the kiss, as if it wasn't something he did very often, but his hands eased, and then moved. She was afraid for an instant that he'd try to pull away and that she'd have to fight him, but he just grabbed her hips and pulled her closer against his body until she was molded to him like a second skin.

He groaned against her mouth as she pulled the claw from his skin, and started caressing the side of his chest with the backs of her claws. She could feel and smell him fighting it, and she reversed her caress, letting the pads of her fingers and tips of her claws trail back up his side. He groaned again, his hands gripping her hips as he ground himself against her. She dug in her claws just a bit to his side, just enough to draw a little blood, and this time it was a snarl against her lips, but he didn't back down from the challenge, he pressed her closer, one of his clawed hands moving up her side to slip between them and grope her breast.

This time it was her turn to moan as his claws cut cloth and skin and she struggled to pull closer to him, the blood and pain nearly driving her to a climax as she ground herself against the thigh between hers.

He pulled his head back, blood on his lips and she knew it was a mixture of their blood.

"We need to get to that phone." His voice was ragged as was his breathing.

"Only if you promise to get on the damned plane." She hissed back, just as raggedly.

"They'll try to kill me."

"...and, if the damned lab didn't why are you afraid of a few teachers at a school."

"I don't want you to see me kill your friends." This time he grinned.

"Just get on the damned plane, and if they try to kill you...it'll be over my dead body." she brushed her cheek against his, rubbing and liking the smell of her scent over his.

"Fine...I'll get on the plane. But I ain't stoppin' at one night now, Jags." He whispered, pressing the ridge of his erection against her belly.

"God I hope not." She grinned at him. "Its going to take at least a week to wear me out."

"I was thinkin' longer than that."

"I like the way you think." She whispered against his lips before licking the drying blood off of them. They separated reluctantly, blood drying on both of them as they climbed into the truck. Everyone looked at them in awed shock as he pounded on the roof of the flatbed truck to signal that they needed to move.


	7. Chapter 7

For all of you who have been waiting, its not as easy without a co conspirator to bounce ideas off of, but I've finally started something completely new, yes its Victor, a combination of Wolverine Origins Victor/Comicverse Victor.

I don't own them, and after watching the new Iron Man movie, I have Victor in my head after a long nap, awake and screaming so here we go again. They are the property of Marvel Universe with the exception of any original characters I create, and dear fans, you know I will.

Call this a Man Woman Wild with mutants if you will...well sorta, they aren't married and don't even like each other - yet.

Chapter 7

The plantation house wasn't that large, by his standards anyway, but they had a phone. They'd stopped in the village and dropped of the two sick cubs at the doctor's office. Rena had stayed with them. The rest of the group was resting on the porch while Jags made the call.

It took three different tries before someone picked up at that school of hers.

"Ororo Monroe." The voice on the other end of the phone said.

"Ro, it's Jags. I need to talk to the Professor."

"Janelle, are you alright? Where are you?"

"It's a long story, Ro. Is the Professor available."

"He's not..." He growled low, something was wrong. "...not here, right now." The weather witch finished. He could hear how tight her voice was.

"What about Jean, or Scott. I really need some help and..." She was cut off by a sob on the other end of the phone.

"They're not here either." He could hear the weather witch trying to keep it together.

"Can someone come down with the jet and get us. I've got about thirty kids, all of them mutants, two who are sick, as well as five other female feral mutants. We just walked out of a Brazilian jungle and would really like to just go home." Janelle said, he could smell tears on her, as well as her frustration over not getting to talk to who she wanted to talk to.

"I'll send Bobby and Kitty down to get you. I've got a location from the phone number." Storm said, seeming to pull herself together. "Should I send Logan?"

"NO!" She said it just a little too loudly, and he heard movement from the other end of the phone line. "With thirty kids plus us, well there just isn't room or need for Logan to come, and I've got one more person with me, but I need to talk to the Professor or Jean."

"I..." he heard the catch in her voice again. "...didn't want to tell you, until you got here. Jags, the Professor, Jean and Scott are all dead."

"Dead." He watched the color drain from Jags's face.

"Yes." He could smell tears trying to spill from the frail's eyes, but they didn't.

"Okay, who's in charge?"

"I am." She trembled a little, as Storm said the words.

"Okay...I've got Victor Creed with me, and I need to bring him back, but not for Logan to try to kill him or something. I know what happened with the Statue and Magneto but there are things you don't know and..." She stopped for a second and took a gulp of air. "...and he's with me." She finished.

"I can't keep Logan away from him if he comes here." Ororo said. "And I don't like the idea of having him here with the students."

"These kids - he's helped all of us survive, I don't think these kids will go if he's not with us. It's complicated Ro, but he's not...well he's not the same person."

"I've heard that before - about a lot of people." Ro said, her voice very tense.

"I know, but the Professor was big on second chances, I mean look at me." Jags said, harshly.

"I know...and that is why I am allowing it. If he gets out of line, even once he leaves. Its that simple."

"Who's providing medical care right now?" Jags asked.

"Why? Did he do something..." He could hear her getting angry on the line.

"No, I'm changing the subject. I've got two kids down with pneumonia, everyone's malnourished and Victor's going to need some medical attention." Janelle said, trying to stay calm, he could smell her frustration turning into a blind rage.

"Creed doesn't need medical anything..." Ororo said tightly.

"Yes, he does. You haven't been in the jungle with him for weeks on end."

"Hank McCoy has been coming to handle medical issues."

"Well call him then, because we're going to need it when we get there." Jags snapped the phone shut and glared at him

"Why'd you have to try to kill her? She'd have been the first one to help you if you hand't pissed her the fuck off." She snarled at him, but he could smell something else under the surface. He should go, let her get back to her life there, but somehow he knew if he did she'd just track his ass down and drag him back.

XXXXXXX

The Professor was dead, Jean and Scott too. What the hell had been going on while she was gone? She fought back tears as she tried to figure out what they were going to be able to do to help Victor. He needed answers about what was happening to him. Part of it she'd been able to figure out so far. He was worried about his behavior, how he had softened toward her and the kids. His pheromones were driving her insane and she knew hers had to be driving him just as nuts. She thought she'd been controlling her mating instincts fairly well in the jungle, but he pulled every bit of her feral out at the worst times…like that display when they'd been rescued. If it hadn't been for the kids she'd have dragged him off into the jungle and mounted him right then.

That part he had no control over, he'd been operating on instinct for so long that he mostly smelled like an animal. He was getting less wild every day, his rational side, reasoning side becoming stronger, and that was worrying him too. She embraced her human side and fought her animal every step of the way – but she was still hiding from her parents too. He'd questioned her repeatedly about how she could switch parts of her mutation on and off, even lectured her about the dangers of keeping her healing factor turned off in the jungle.

She sat on the first step of the plantation house porch and waited for the plane. The kids were just sitting on the porch, tired and as quiet as they'd been before the break in the cave. She was worried about all of them, about what damage had been done to them locked in those cages in that lab for so long. She wasn't even sure exactly how long she'd been locked up herself, her sense of time had left her with no way to tell day from night in there. She looked up as he stepped over one of the boys and settled on the top step with her, his boneless ease and grace startling her.

"Someone's healing's working again." She muttered.

"Your's'd work if you'd turn it the fuck on." He growled at her.

"It's on."

"Frail, don't turn on the waterworks."

"I ain't frail, and I'm not crying. I'm just going to miss him, he made it easy to hide from my family, convinced them I was teaching at an exclusive boarding school, even convinced my father that everything was normal. He helped me get my degree, my teaching certificate. I teach history, ancient and medieval history mostly. I never wanted to participate in the underground stuff, but I know about it, about what they do."

"Never wanted ta help people?"

"Never wanted to be famous, to have my face plastered on the news or in papers where my family could see what I was."

He growled low.

She glared at him. "I know, you think I should tell them to fuck off, I don't need some stupid normals tying me up in knots; I hate them for what they are sometimes, my father's so damaged from his military service, my mother's…dying. They can't help what they are, I don't even really think they could have helped what they did to me and my brother, I mean my dad…he raised us the way his father raised him. My mom coped the only way she knew how."

"BULLSHIT!" He snarled. "Your father's an abusive bastard, I should know. Your mother's a week frail that abandoned her kids in favor of booze. All you're doing is making excuses."

"I know, but the worst part is, I love them, they are my parents, and more than anything I want them to be proud of me."

"Shit, frail, I thought I was fucked in the head."

They sat there quietly for a while. She was surprised when he started talking.

"My Pa, he was worse than yours, liked ta pull my fangs out with a pair of pliers, claws too, he'd lock me up sometimes for weeks at a time. Jimmy's mom thought she was doing me a favor when she hired me ta look after the kid. She had no idea I knew he was my brother. She was married to a rich guy, my Pa was the gardener. He beat the shit out of me and my mother, she ended up dead after one of his drunken rages, not sure if he killed her or she killed herself because she couldn't take it anymore. After that I spent most of my time at the big house, takin' care of Jimmy Boy as much as I could. I never wanted him ta know he had anything to do with that bastard. He had a father that loved him, doted on him. I was jealous…sometimes. Most of the time I was grateful, he had things a lot better than I did."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I got two reasons…one I ain't gonna be alone anymore, like it or not, and two, I need to tell ya so one of us can remember this shit."

"What are you talking about?"

"I figure I got two choices, take off inta that jungle and don't look back, or go with you and try ta hang on to somethin human inside me. I don't want ta forget."

"You never struck me as the sentimental type."

"Ain't sentiment, if I forget, if I become nothing but an animal, I die…and I ain't ready ta die."

She looked at him and saw something she'd never in a million years have expected, real fear in his eyes.

She felt the jet before she saw it, coming down on top of them. The kids all stared in awe as it landed softly on the plantation lawn. She felt a twinge of sadness as she noted that someone other than Scott had to be at the stick.

The back ramp dropped and three people stepped out, wearing the trademark leather uniforms. She recognized Bobby and Kitty, her students, and was surprised when Marie stepped down as well; she was shocked to see that she wasn't wearing any gloves.

"Ms. Arnold, get away from him." Marie yelled and started running.

"Marie, it's alright, he's with us." Janelle said softly, watching the shocked look cross the girl's face. The smell of fear hit her and she remembered that Victor had been involved in Marie's kidnapping.

"Hello Rogue." Victor said, humor and menace in his posture. Janelle elbowed him in the side and he growled. "Fine…kid – did I ever do anything to hurt ya?"

"Does kidnappin' count…haulin' me around on your shoulder, brusin' mah ribs and back. Puttin' me in that machine so Magneto could try ta kill me…" Marie was ticking them off on her bare fingers.

"Yeah – I guess you won't take 'I was just followin' orders.'"

Marie's answer was a right hook to his face, Janelle watched as his nose knit itself together and he reached up, re-broke it and let it heal straight. "I'll give ya that one for the whole tryin' ta kill ya, kid, but don't do it again."

Marie stared at him in shock, but the fear started to recede. Kitty and Bobby were loading the younger kids in the plane and strapping them into the seats. It didn't take long and it was time for Janelle and Victor to board.

"You sure you want me ta go with you?" He asked eyeing the jungle longingly.

"If you want help dealing with this shit…and me to keep my promise, get your ass on that plane." She growled at him.

"Just remember…I ain't stoppin' till I'm worn the fuck out…and will still probably keep fuckin' ya." He growled back at her.

"We'll see who wears who out…" She growled back as she climbed the ramp behind him. She could smell the suspicion and fear from Bobby and Kitty and she just sat down in one of the web-seats and put on her harness. He sat down across from her and they glared at each other all the way to New York.

XXXXXXXX

A/N For those waiting for it - YES there will be a huge Victor/James confrontation...so hang onto your seats dear readers.


	8. Chapter 8

For all of you who have been waiting, its not as easy without a co conspirator to bounce ideas off of, but I've finally started something completely new, yes its Victor, a combination of Wolverine Origins Victor/Comicverse Victor.

I don't own them, and after watching the new Iron Man movie, I have Victor in my head after a long nap, awake and screaming so here we go again. They are the property of Marvel Universe with the exception of any original characters I create, and dear fans, you know I will.

Call this a Man Woman Wild with mutants if you will...well sorta, they aren't married and don't even like each other - yet.

This Chapter dedicated to IsabelleBlue - Just for you.

Chapter 8

He gripped the side of the plane and glared at the group in front of him. The blueboy he'd seen on television was some Ambassador or something. The weather witch still owed him a scream but he doubted Jags would let him make her give it to him. He didn't know the big guy, but the way little Houdini there – Kitty they called her ran to him, he must be the one he'd smelled all over her on the plane. It was the man in the middle that had all his attention…all six blades out and snorting like a bull ready to charge.

"Now Jimmy…can't we talk…brother to bro…" he stopped as the Runt charged him, those sharp blades aimed right for his gut. He grinned and crouched on all fours ready to charge back until a flash of tawny red jumped between them and those blades sank themselves into Jags' gut instead.

"NO!" He roared grabbing her as she collapsed against him. James pulled the blades back, staring at her in shock. "TURN IT ON FRAIL! NOW!"

"Can't…pain…" Her breathing was getting shallow. The blue guy ran over and started trying to stop the bleeding.

"You ain't gettin' out of a promise that easy, Jags." Victor whispered against her hair, trying to make her angry, distract her from the pain.

She shook her head, and he watched the wounds start to slowly heal.

"All the way on, or I'm gonna have ta make the weather witch scream instead." He whispered…that did it, her factor kicked into overdrive and she was back on her feet in ten seconds. He helped her stand, and didn't even duck as her claws ripped into him.

"You even consider looking at her, Creed and I'll gut you myself…I might even find a pair of adamantium shackles and hang you from the ceiling and just keep gutting you."

They were all looking at her in shock.

"Got ya ta heal didn't I?" He snarled back at her. "Now go deal with the cubs, frail. I need ta talk ta my brother."

"Brother? I don't know who the fuck you are, other than some stinking, uncouth, mangy cat, but you sure ain't no brother of mine." Jimmy said, snarling at him.

"I know you said you were done, but come on, disowning me. I saved your life, GAVE you life a couple times, and this is the fucking thanks I get. You don't call, you don't write, I stayed put for five years after that damned island, just to see if you'd change your mind, and THIS is what I FUCKING GET!" Victor crouched ready to rip into his brother.

"Logan, we should take this elsewhere, its upsetting the children." Victor glared at Storm.

"His name's JIMMY!"

"His name is Logan as far as we are concerned. I don't believe this story of yours and unless you can prove it…you're done here." Marie said.

"No, you don't understand, he's all I've got. All I've ever had. He's my brother, my blood. I took care of him when no one would. Jimmy Boy, come on, Runt…tell them…" He didn't see any recognition in his brother's face. "Jimmy…"

He collapsed, fighting to breath, a strange sensation in his chest, he'd only ever felt it three times before in his life. Looking at his mother's lifeless body, watching Jimmy kill their father, and when he'd watched his brother walk away from him in the jungle.

"Jimmy" he whispered. He felt her arms around him, and he pushed her away. He wasn't hurt, wasn't frail, and wasn't going to show weakness in front of people that wanted to see him dead.

"Logan, there is a scientific way to prove his claim. I have your DNA, Victor if you would give me a sample, I can run them in comparison and have an answer fairly quickly." He looked up at the blue mutant.

"Yeah…" He nodded and pulled himself to his feet.

"Doctor Hank McCoy." The blue guy put out a paw. Victor looked at him, and then held out his hand, asking the other man to lead the way.

He heard the distinctive sound of Jimmy's claws behind him, and turned and looked back. "I ain't ever lied to you Jimmy. I ain't about to start now."

XXXXXXX

She followed them to the medical bay, she wasn't about to let Victor out of her sight, not until she knew no one was going to try to hurt him. He was still weak, even if he didn't want to admit it and needed more than a DNA test from the doctor. He needed medical treatment.

"Dr. McCoy. I think it would be a good idea if you gave Victor a full workup. He was in a lab, they were experimenting on him and…" Victor glared at her over his shoulder but she stuck her tongue out at him. "…he's been weak, usually in the mornings, his healing factor isn't working right, and he's got metal claws now." She could feel his growl through the floor tiles and smell his anger, but this was one of the reasons he came, he needed their help.

"This way" Dr. McCoy opened one of the exam rooms. "I had planned on that Janelle, but whatever information you can provide will be helpful."

"They tried at least three…"

"Four." He growled out the word.

"…times to get adamantium to bond to his skeleton, like Log…Jimmy. But it only worked on his claws. The last time, I thought he was dead, and then he came up out of the tank, killed the lab techs and scientists, and then came and rescued us. He helped us get clothes and out of there and hidden in the jungle. He passed out then, and we carried him for three days. He'd wake up at night, help us plan where to go next, sometimes even think as far ahead as which direction we needed to go to get to help, but he'd be out by morning and nothing we could do would wake him up."

"The first thing I can remember after the lab is waking up near a lake…the kids had a small fire going and Jags here was cooking. I passed out again for a minute, but was able to make it to the fire with help after I came to again." He glared at her but continued.

"I am always weakest in the morning, but it gets better by mid afternoon, and my healing factor's working normally by nightfall again."

"Let me get a blood sample, and do not be alarmed, it has a special anticoagulant agent in the adamantium needle to allow us to draw blood from Logan."

"James. His name is James Howlett. Why do you keep calling him Logan?"

"That is the only name we know him by." Hank said as the needle pierced his skin. Janelle watched as the syringe filled with the precious fluid, and she couldn't stop herself from licking her lips.

"Later – frail." He growled at her, but he was smiling as he said it. She glared at him.

"I'm going to give you a robe, please strip, we have a special spectrographic machine that will not react with any metal in your body but I want to look at your skeleton in comparison to Logan's." Dr. McCoy handed him a piece of cloth. She watched him snarl again, but stand and start to strip.

"Ms. Arnold, do you mind ste…" Dr. McCoy started.

"Na, she can stay…not like she ain't gonna see it up close and personal soon enough." Victor growled low at her. She knew he could smell her as her pheromones raged in response.

Dr. McCoy looked at her in askance.

"We have a deal, Dr. McCoy. Its consensual I promise."

"Hank, and I don't doubt that…you're in estrus. Even I can smell it."

"What does that mean?"

"Your mutation has been active far longer than you've ever allowed it to be before. You have reached full maturity and mating age for a female feral. Your body is secreting pheromones in preparation for finding a mate – although…from what I see here, you've found one."

"I'm not sure if that's a good thing." Victor said slowly, glaring at her.

"Not to worry, its not like wolves or swans, monogamy is not essential, and it is mostly a physiological reaction."

"In English doc."

"You are extremely sexually attracted to each other, but once the estrus passes, you can both move on."

She tried to hide the panic at that. She didn't want him to move on. She didn't know when it happened, sometime after the lake, definitely during the stay in the cave, but she'd definitely become emotionally attached to him. She wasn't going to call it love, it was too raw, too wild to be that, but it was definitely a feeling of possession and submission at the same time. She wanted to belong to him, and by God he was going to belong to her too.

She waited while Hank conducted the scan, and Victor dressed in a clean pair of sweats and t-shirt.

"Didn't like what you heard, huh Jags." He taunted her.

"No I didn't."

He moved quickly, pinning her to a wall with his body, hands gripping her hair, claws scraping her scalp. "I ain't goin' anywhere, I told ya I'm thinkin' long term."

"How long?"

"I don't want ta be alone again. Jimmy…well he's gone…" She tried to ignore the hitch in his voice, and she tried not to let her nose itch at the unfamiliar smell of salt from his eyes. "I can't be alone. I need someone who can remember, and make me remember. I ain't gonna end up like him."

"You are correct, Mr. Creed. You will not end up like Logan." Hank said, looking at the computer readout in front of him. "However, we will have to adjust to calling him James. He is your sibling, by one parent anyway."

"I coulda told ya that, we had the same Pa." Victor said over his shoulder, never taking his eyes from her. "What do you mean I won't end up like him?"

"It is difficult for us to read Logan…James's brain matter with the adamantium coating, so I have not been able to ascertain the exact reason for his memory loss but, in examining yours, you have no damage in your memory centers, in fact they are extremely active. I am surprised by your lack of adrenaline and the high levels of epinephrine in your system as well as high levels of antihistamic factors in your blood. You have had a major allergic reaction that your body is still reacting to."

Hank turned and looked at them. "Please let Ms Arnold down from the wall."

Victor stepped back, and she gave the blue mutant her full attention.

"The reason your healing factor is slow to react in the morning is it is still fighting off this allergic reaction. Over night you rest, but it is something that is in your body and cannot be removed. The metal on your claws would be my guess."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, either your body will fight off the histamine reaction with your healing factor and you will make a full recovery, or this will be something you will deal with the rest of your life, either way…I can give you some drugs that will help in the short term, give your healing factor a time to rest. You will have to stay here, at the mansion so that I can monitor you. The amounts of drugs I will have to give you would kill a regular mutant."

He looked at her, and she tried to maintain indifference, but inside a small cornel of hope was blooming.

XXXXXXXX

They were in a large office and he snarled at all the delicate fripperies in the room. The large desk he appreciated, it looked like something that he would have, if he had someplace to put one. Storm had pulled Janelle off his arm and was lecturing her in another part of the building. He could catch a few words every now and then as they raised their voices.

He smelled the Runt before the doors opened and waited, trying to stay calm. Something was wrong with Jimmy, and according to Bluebutt it didn't have anything to do with the metal. Hank had given him a clean bill of health other than the allergy, and he was going to treat that, so Victor wasn't too worried about being frail for too long. He hated asking for help from these people, but at least Janelle made it worth it, he hoped.

"Hank…told me." He heard Jimmy say behind him. He could smell the hate and rage in his brother's body and that ache in his chest returned the one that made breathing hard.

"Can we talk?" He said quietly.

James walked across the room and sat down in a chair more than an arms length from him. "So talk."

"I don't know everything that happened. I know Stryker sent me out to get your attention, piss you off so you'd volunteer for that metal thing. He was pullin' both our strings."

"Stryker?"

"Yeah – you and me joined up with him after 'Nam…okay after I fucked up in 'Nam and they had us on a firing squad for killing a superior officer."

"Us?"

"We're brothers Jimmy, I took care of you when you were a kid, when we had to run after our Pa killed your step father – and you killed Pa. You were always sick…every time you got sick you got stronger, just like I did when I was a kid. Those claws of yours…they were amazing in a fight. We did that – a lot – fight, one war after another, side by side and back to back. We had good times." He looked at his brother, hoping for a spark of recognition, something to say James remembered any of this.

Jimmy just shook his head. "I don't know you."

"Damn it, James, we've shared – what over one hundred, almost two hundred years together, you'd think you'd remember SOMETHING!" He roared.

"No."

"Jimmy." He heard the tremor in his voice and cursed himself for the frail reaction. This was worse than the jungle. Then James had walked out, now it was like he'd never even known him. His brother…

"JIMMY I WANT MY BROTHER BACK!" He roared.

"I don't know you, biology may dictate that we're related, but I don't know you." James looked him dead in the eye and Victor felt something inside him curl up and die. He watched as Jimmy walked back across the room. He stopped at the door and Victor held his breath.

"It's Logan. I don't know who this James Howlett is, but that ain't me." He slammed the door behind him and Victor sat there until he heard the roar of a motorcycle outside.


	9. Chapter 9

For all of you who have been waiting, its not as easy without a co conspirator to bounce ideas off of, but I've finally started something completely new, yes its Victor, a combination of Wolverine Origins Victor/Comicverse Victor.

I don't own them, and after watching the new Iron Man movie, I have Victor in my head after a long nap, awake and screaming so here we go again. They are the property of Marvel Universe with the exception of any original characters I create, and dear fans, you know I will.

Call this a Man Woman Wild with mutants if you will...well sorta, they aren't married and don't even like each other - yet.

I promise - promises will be kept in the next chapter...

Chapter 9

Jags yanked her arm out of Ro's grip and glared at her.

"No, I'm not going to change my mind. I don't know if it's my mutation or his or a combination of the two but I need him, and I am not going to just let you kick him out in the street when he needs Hank's help right now."

"Hank said he can give the healing factor a rest, not that he could cure him." Ro said. "Janelle, please see reason. With Jean and Scott gone, we need teachers right now, enrollment is up after Alcatraz and we really need you."

"Not if Victor can't stay. I'll go with him if you throw him out."

"I'm not going to throw him out; I'm just saying if he causes any trouble…" This was the third argument in three days. Victor had spent most of his time in the medical facility and hardly showed his nose above ground after his talk with Logan. She'd tried to get him to tell her what happened but he just growled at her and stormed off. He wasn't the only one growling…and she felt like a drowned rat half the time from the cold showers but Hank wouldn't let him sleep outside the medical labs while he was under the influence of the drugs he was on.

They were in front of the library watching several of the older students study. Bobby was sitting near one of the windows. Victor was on one of his rare trips above ground, and sitting near Bobby, glaring out the window. Janelle could see Marie and some of the smaller children on the yard.

"You havin' trouble kid?" She heard him ask Bobby as he glanced at the book on the table.

"Not really – just advanced analytical calculus…its kinda kicking my ass." Bobby cracked a half smile at Victor, and Ro put a restraining hand on Janelle's arm as she started to step forward to keep someone from getting hurt.

Victor shrugged. "I can show ya where ya screwed up on that problem, if ya'd like."

"You…" she could see the contempt on Bobby's face.

"Yeah…me." He extended one claw and used the tip to point to a spot on the paper in front of the boy. "This should be a positive/negative. You can't get the right answer in the quadratic equation portion of the problem if you don't realize you are dealing with a positive and negative number on the X axis. You can't get a definitive answer on which quadrant of the grid if you don't have the Z equivalent, and even then, it can still be on either side of the zero."

Bobby looked at what he was pointing too, and she watched as he struggled through the problem again and watched the grin as he realized he had the right answer this time.

"Are you tutoring me in Calc?" Bobby said, grabbing Victor's beer and chilling it.

"If ya want, I ain't got anything better ta do while I wait."

Janelle glared at Ro as if to say 'see I told you' and Ro pulled her back from the door.

"I have heard so many times that this mutant or that mutant has changed, and we've ended up having major problems…"

"Ro, the professor would give him the chance. He gave me one…"

"You had an accident with your power…he's a killer."

"When I came here I was covered in blood, that boy's ear was still in my mouth. Maybe it was his fault for trying to cop a feel, maybe it was my roommate for telling him I'd be an easy fuck, maybe it was her boyfriend for holding me down while he tried to rape me, or maybe it was me for thinking I had to get as far away from my abusive father as possible for college, so I had no protection at all. What ever it was, he ended up dead, my roommate cut up pretty bad and her boyfriend is going to sing soprano for the rest of his life."

"All the more reason to be cautious of Creed, you loose control when you are in…"

"No, we talked – a lot – on the escape from the jungle. He told me about his father, about being locked up for months on end, about not knowing if his mother killed herself or his father beat her to death."

"And…it shows how he became the way he is…"

"No, it doesn't. He told me so I'd understand that he knew what I'd been through and could understand me. But, Ro, he never once hurt any of those kids, and they climbed all over him in that cave. He even made balls for them out of scraps of leather so they'd have something to play with, set up games of keep away and four squares so they'd have opportunities to play – and played with them. He's got experience being a father…he raised Logan from the age of eleven. He has proven he can be gentle, and guiding and can teach, he taught those kids how to skin an animal, how to make their own shoes from the skins, how to tan, how to sew them up so they didn't leave a track."

"I just don't want anyone getting hurt, especially you." Ro said as she walked toward the stairs.

"I won't Ro, you and Jean…you reminded me what it was like to be a girl after what happened, I trust you, and you are going to have to trust me. I trust Victor, and frankly, I'm gonna trust him a whole hell of a lot more as soon as Hank releases him for a good fuck."

"Jags…language." Ro said, laughing.

"Oh yeah right, remember hearing comes with this parcel…and I don't know who the German guy is…but you guys aren't exactly quiet."

Ro just chuckled. "There is something I wanted to ask you. What did he say to you, to get you to turn on the healing factor?"

"That if I died he'd just have to make you scream for him instead." Jags laughed at the shocked look on Ro's face.

"Tell me that's…not…I mean…he wasn't talking about…"

"Sex, Ro, he'd fuck you till you couldn't stop screaming his name."

"Oh…is that what he meant…at the station, and the statue…that he wanted…"

"Uhh yeah. We kinda talked about screaming and he likes his kills quiet most of the time unless he's actually having to…you know, rape them or something for the contract, but for real sex, he really likes a vocal partner."

"YOU talked about ME!" Ro said.

"Well he used you as an example, and that it would be a great fuck but you probably wouldn't return for seconds because he does have to have blood and pain for him to get off during sex and without a healing factor, well women just usually don't come back for seconds."

Ro just sat down on the steps, and Janelle sat down next to her. "If its any consolation…he really did think you were hot before he met me."

She could see a red flush under the chocolate skin. "If you ever tell him what I'm about to tell you I'll kill you myself." Ro glared at her. "I've had dreams…since then, that he…and I…and they were violent and I wake up out of breath and most of the way to an orgasm."

She put her arm around Ro's shoulders and pulled her into a hug. "I'm not surprised. The first month in the lab, they'd threaten to put him in with me so they could record him raping me…and I'd laugh…but when I got a good look at him…well they could tell it wouldn't be rape no matter how hard he tried, so they just gave up…its that old saying you can't rape the willing."

"Hank is releasing him from the lab today. All I can ask is you keep it down a little…and put a plastic cover on the mattress – and use red sheets, they'll be easier to clean." Ro smiled at her. "And I do NOT want any details, no matter how much we used to beg Jean for them." They both laughed as Logan stormed out of the library.

XXXXXXX

He watched her step out of the room with the weather witch and growled low. The ice kid pulled back a little. "Not you, kid…just a little frustrated."

Bobby looked back over his shoulder. "Yeah. Ms. Arnold used to be a big fantasy for a lot of us guys…" He pulled back a little more at the glare from his tutor. "Not that she'd let any of us near her after what happened."

"What do you mean?"

"She was nearly raped in her dorm at college, by her roommate's boyfriend's best friend. She ended up killing him, castrating the boyfriend and cutting her roommate up pretty bad. She was completely wild when they brought her in. Ro and Jean used to talk about it when they thought us kids were asleep. She'd been chewing on the guy she killed when the Professor got there and brought her here. He convinced her father that this was a special school where she would be able to work on her degree and teach so they didn't have to pay for her tuition. She got it back under control and I've never seen her out of control again."

Victor just let out a low growl; he had every intention of her losing control tonight.

"Her father's an ass."

"Yeah…"

"Tell me about my father." He heard Jimmy behind him. He turned around and looked at his brother. The meds fucked with his senses but he was on the last dose, the doc couldn't give him any more, and he hadn't smelled Jimmy come up behind him.

"Which one?"

"There were two?"

"Yeah…my Pa was your biological father, the man who thought you were his son raise you, until I took over." Victor said softly, not wanting to scare him away. He was asking questions, maybe he would remember something.

"You said I killed your father."

"Our father and yeah – you killed him for killing the only man you ever called father." Victor turned slowly. James was standing there, hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. "Your father loved you, doted on you…if you were sick, he was the one that stayed up all night and watched over you, not that whore mother of yours."

"Leave her out of this."

"Okay. Not much ta tell, he was a good man, rich farmer, my father was his gardener, an plowed more than flowerbeds when he wasn't home. You were the light of your father's life. His only son, heir…you had everything."

"You hated me for it."

"No. I was jealous sometimes, sure, that's only natural. But you had things I never did, a father that cared for you, never beaten a day in your life until we started tryin' ta live on our own. I remember the first time someone hit you…I had ta hold ya back from killin' him, we didn't need the trouble, at the time. I did go back and make him pay later, no one hurt you that I didn't make them pay."

"I don't want ta hear about you, what you claim ta have done for me, I want clues ta my family, the rest of the bullshit save for someone that gives a fuck." He watched as Jimmy stormed out of the library door. He could hear Janelle laughing with the weather witch outside and pushed away from the table.

"You got that kid?" He asked the ice boy who had sat quietly through the whole thing.

"Yeah…you really helped a lot." Victor just nodded and walked across the room.

She was sitting on the stairs leading to the second floor, both of them laughing about something, and he grinned at her. She smiled at him and stood up, brushing off the back of her jeans. "I'm going to spend some time with Victor, Ro."

"Just don't be too loud."

Jags laughed and walked over to him. "Not making any promises…I've still got a huge one to keep."


	10. Chapter 10

For all of you who have been waiting, its not as easy without a co conspirator to bounce ideas off of, but I've finally started something completely new, yes its Victor, a combination of Wolverine Origins Victor/Comicverse Victor.

I don't own them, and after watching the new Iron Man movie, I have Victor in my head after a long nap, awake and screaming so here we go again. They are the property of Marvel Universe with the exception of any original characters I create, and dear fans, you know I will.

Call this a Man Woman Wild with mutants if you will...well sorta, they aren't married and don't even like each other - yet.

Chapter 10

He watched as the bike tore down the driveway of the school again. Every night he'd heard it, even through the ground down in the medical bay. He knew it was Jimmy tearing out of here like there was something he had to run away from…but both of them had been running since they were kids, so he should be surprised that even if James couldn't remember, he still had that strong instinct to run.

He'd spent a lot of time with Bluebutt, and actually learned a thing or two about himself. His mutation was definitely feline, but not like his namesake, more like a South China tiger than an actual Sabertooth. His instincts were more in line with that rare sub race of tigers, including reactions to a female in estrus. He was still trying to reconcile himself to the fact that after her hormones were through raging, she might not react exactly the same as she had so far. He was still trying to decide if he was going to allow the instincts to take over, or wait until she was in a less volatile state to begin their physical relationship.

That was the other thing bugging the shit out of him, this damned reasonableness that he was suddenly confronted with. McCoy said it was the allergy reaction that had caused his animal side to retreat, leaving this strangely reasonable brain in charge. He'd always been calculating, even viciously so, but this was something he wasn't used to. He did admit it was nice to sit and actually enjoy a math puzzle, or actually talk to McCoy about his mutation without fighting the animal all the time.

Something McCoy had said was still really sticking in his craw…that somehow the metal in his body had actually arrested the progression of his mutation, that it had stopped the animal from taking complete control, and as long as he retained it, the animal would never consume him completely. If it did that to him, did it work the same way on Jimmy…and what would happen to Janelle without it to keep her under control. He didn't think that would be very important for at least a few decades, but eventually he was going to have to watch her revert to a full animal state, if he followed his reasoned plan.

He heard the door of her room open and let himself have a small animal grin at her gasp of surprise.

"Made yourself at home I see." She said with a soft growl as she walked in the door. He didn't even glance at the mess in the room. McCoy had helped him find some clothes and he'd been trying them on before he'd heard the bike. There were things tossed all over the room as he discarded one thing after another.

"Not really, gonna return most of that to McCoy…just ain't my style. I prefer my suits hand tailored…and what his obsession with Looney Tunes ties is I have no clue." She chuckled as she picked up the pile of discarded ties. She was laying them neatly on the top of the dresser. He watched her in the reflection on the window in front of him. He could smell how nervous she was.

"We need to…"

"….somthin ta tell ya." He grinned again and turned, looking straight at her as he leaned against the window frame.

"You first." She whispered, looking down at the clothes on the floor and concentrating on making sure there wasn't a wrinkle in the pair of pants she kept folding over and over.

He shrugged. "The drugs suppressed my healing factor long enough for my body to expel all but the metal on the claws. It's now workin' normally, so I can be on my way."

"Where are we going?" She said, finally laying the pair of pants on the dresser and picking up one of the poorly tailored suit jackets and a hanger to put it on.

"What we, frail." He snarled at her, causing her head to snap up, glaring at him. "I mean, you can't even seem ta be able to keep a promise, why would I want you hangin' on my coat tails." He growled, and had to hide the grin as the anger leapt to her chocolate eyes. For some reason she forgot to be nervous when she was angry which was just what he wanted.

"YOU BASTARD!" She shouted, leaping at him, claws extended. He just caught her by both wrists to keep the claws away from his face, and leaned in and licked her cheek.

"Nope…my parents were married, much good it did them." He did grin at her then as he forced her wrists behind her back, and pulling her hard against him. She squirmed, and snapped and snarled until she realized he wasn't going anywhere, at least not until she did something about the erection trying to burst out of his pants.

"You're not leaving, are you?" She glared as she calmed down. He just shook his head and, took advantage of her relative stillness to lean his face down and rub his cheek against hers, and down her neck, the scent of her arousal hitting him in the face, making him want to bite hard down on her neck to hold her in place while he mounted her.

"Nope, just like it when you're pissed." He said finally as he pulled his face away from hers. He released his grip on her wrists, slowly, just in case she decided to blood him first.

XXXXX

She felt his grip on her wrists ease and she slipped one hand out of his, and reached up to cup his cheek. "You like it when I'm pissed…how about now." She whispered as she leaned into him, taking his bottom lip between her teeth and sucking on it until he opened his mouth and allowed her to stroke his tongue with hers. She felt him fighting something inside himself before he groaned and kissed her back. He grabbed her hips and pulled her against him so she couldn't mistake exactly where this was going. She ground her hips against him, feeling the thick bulge against her belly. Her fingers trailed down to the collar of his sweatshirt and she released one claw to slice the fabric.

"Now who's in a hurry?" He said in a rumbling voice like nothing she'd ever heard…it was only when he eased her head onto his chest that she realized he was purring.

"I thought you liked it rough." She said a little growl of impatience in her voice.

"I'm used to it rough…I'd like ta try it slow." He whispered against her ear, before licking it with his rough tongue. She didn't realize exactly how rough it was until she felt it against the sensitive skin behind her ear. She moaned again and molded her body to his.

He pushed her back, causing her to trip over a hanger on the floor and fall back. She snarled at him, as he started to stalk across the floor toward her. She backed up slowly, mesmerized by his movements, the deadly grace, she could see how every move could end in a killing blow, but he just kept moving forward. She backed up against the bed and pulled herself back to her feet, but before she could completely get her balance he pounced, pushing her back on the soft mattress, his body pinning her down. She reached up to hold him back, but instead wrapped her fingers in his shirt and pulled, hard, ripping the fabric away from the soft fur on his body. Her fingers traced the downy fur over hard steel muscle and she moaned again, finally releasing her full mutation. She felt the fur sprout on her own skin, its tawny color giving her skin an almost orange glow, the dark spots on her arms and sides catching his attention.

"Ha…I knew I was right, Jags." He whispered, as he extended a single metal claw and sliced up her shirt, through the bra underneath and pushed the fabric away as if it offended him. She moaned as he leaned in and blew his hot breath over one nipple, causing her to shiver, and her fur to stand on end. He chuckled, and then blew on the other one for good measure. "You look like a spooked kitten, Jags. Fur all puffed out like that.

She glared at him, all sense of play gone at the insult. Her claws extended again but he moved faster than she could, pinning them both above her head with one of his. "Not yet…you'll get your chance, but right now…I want to look at you." Without much effort, he kept her pinned while he cut the shorts she was wearing from her body, and the slip of a thong under them at the same time.

"Damn. Shoulda left that on…nothin' like a frail in a thong to get me hard." She glared at him again. "Of course I do have a use for this…" he said as he grabbed one of the ties she'd missed off the bed. He quickly tied her hands together and then picked her up, and slamming her back down on the bed, this time length wise and tied the other end of the tie to the headboard. "No cuttin' that either, or I won't let ya blood me." He whispered against her stomach as he nuzzled the ligher fur of her navel. She moaned and squirmed under his licks and nips along her skin.

XXXXX

He watched the play of emotions over her face. He couldn't believe she'd actually thought he was going to let her have any control. From the smell of things, the only thing keeping her from ripping him apart was his words. The frail silk of the tie wouldn't hold her for long, but she trembled under him, not even trying to get loose. The combination of anger and arousal and distinctly feminine outrage was not one he was used to and it was doing very interesting things to both his mind and body.

The fur had been a surprise, but he'd figured she wasn't letting her mutation completely loose, and feeling it, so soft under his fingers and lips, catching it in his teeth and pulling, just to make her yelp and growl made him grin. She smelled like something that was going to be very tasty to eat, and he moved his face lower down her abdomen. She growled and moaned again as his nose just brushed the edge of her lips and he grinned. His tongue teased her, barely brushing that sensitive area as he explored her hips and thighs. She was definitely wet, and her body jumped whenever he brushed against her lips. He looked up at her, over her belly, her breasts heaving, arms bound over her head and the glare of defiance and anger in her eyes made his decision for him.

She needed to realize he wasn't going to take defiance, and he grinned, making sure his fangs were clearly visible before pulling away from her body. He stood at the foot of the bed, looking down at her, as he unfastened the pants he had on and dropped them to the floor. She didn't even flinch at his size, just glared at him, daring him to do something with it with her eyes. He wasn't going to take a dare, not from her.

"If ya can't ask nice…I'm gonna have ta stop being nice." He growled before grabbing her ankles and lifting her off the bed, flipping her over onto her belly. He forced one thigh between her legs and ran his claw tips up the outside of her legs, feeling her wince as blood flowed down her legs onto the bed. He grinned as he watched them heal as quickly as his own wounds would, and knew she had her factor on full blast.

"Good girl…wouldn't want ya to get too hurt. I plan on this lasting a while." He said as he licked up the slightly darker markings up her spine. He felt her shiver, and the moan as his cock brushed her ass made him grin. She was going to please him in every way…before the night was over, but for now he had definite plans for that defiance. Her hips bucked back against him, and he pulled back, barely letting her feel the weight of him, before going back to the light touches, until he reached the back of her neck, brushing her chocolate hair away from her shoulder, and brushing his lips along the juncture between her shoulder and neck.

"Now about that anger and defiance, you made a promise, frail…" He leaned his head back, and lunged at her neck, biting deep and holding her in place as he plunged his cock deep inside her tight pussy. He felt her buck from the pain and invasion, but she ground her hips back against him as he seated completely inside her, a moan of unbridled pleasure escaping through his clenched jaw as he realized just how wet and ready she'd been. He pulled out and thrust deep again, never letting go of her neck, her blood filling his mouth as he ground his teeth to keep the wound open and bleeding against her healing factor. He was shocked as her body responded by grinding back against him again, and he withdrew a third time and thrust deep again.

He felt her body start to shudder and her inner muscles clench around him, and he chuckled against her neck, finally releasing the flesh. "Like that do ya, frail…well, get used ta it…I'm gonna fuck you like this for a good long while." He growled.

XXXXX

She whimpered and moaned and growled and hissed but wouldn't let her claws out to cut the silk around her wrists. She wanted her chance, wanted his blood in her mouth, wanted to mount him, ride him until she was spent and then ride him some more. He pulled up onto his knees and pulled her up with him, his hands gripping her hips, forcing her to her knees, one hand wrapped in her hair, forcing her head and shoulders down on the bed while the other hand grabbed her hip, claws digging in as his hips started a brutal rhythm, pounding into her, stretching her pussy tight, the angle causing as much pain as pleasure as he growled and snarled. She didn't even feel it building but suddenly she was screaming into the padding of the mattress under her face, her body shaking and trembling, the surge of pleasure and pain in her brain exploding behind her closed eyelids, her breath locked out of her lungs as the scream gurgled into a faint whisper.

She took a deep shuddering breath, her body still moving at the same brutal rhythm and she realized she'd climaxed without him either noticing or acknowledging it. He growled again, pulling her hair back toward him, causing her back to arch, her shoulders stretched by the bonds on her wrists as he kept pounding her. This time she had warning, enough to take a deep breath before the wave hit her and she screamed again, the pain in her back and shoulders adding to the burning pain from thousands of tiny rips in her pussy being opened up over and over again as he just fucked her. This time she heard his roar in her ear and the burning sensation of his hot cum stinging all those little tears as they healed inside her.

"Damn…you must want my blood bad, frail." She could hear the grin in his voice. She looked at her wrist and realized that a good amount of pain came from it. "Don't ever do anything like that again…" He snarled as he untied the tie and snapped the broken wrist back into place. "I don't want ya hurt more than ya have ta be, frail."

She was still trembling as he pulled her up by her hair and turned her to face him. He pulled her wrist to his lips and kissed it gently. She knew her face was a mess of tears and blood and spit, and he leaned in and licked away all the mess, and then rubbed his cheek gently against hers.

XXXXX

She'd broken her wrist trying to obey him, he was going to have to teach her that she wasn't to hurt herself like that, a little bondage was fine, but she was going to have to learn her limits. She'd broken it during her climax and he doubted she'd even noticed until after she'd come down from her orgasm, but it gave him an idea that he was going to have to watch her when he fucked her, he hadn't realized she was going to like pain quite so much.

He felt her nuzzling his neck, and he looked down at her. The fur had faded to bare shading on her skin and she purred softly as she tried to get his attention. Her blood had been sweet in his mouth, and he hadn't felt a woman orgasm voluntarily in decades. All and all it had been more than he'd expected. He leaned his head back, letting her nuzzle deeper against his neck, her body working its way to straddling him. He moaned as she settled herself on top of him, his cock ready to go again, and feeling sheathed inside her, started his hips moving almost involuntarily.

He almost didn't hear the whisper, and she still took him by surprise. "My turn."

He roared as her teeth bit deep into his shoulder, her body grinding on top of him, claws deep in his upper arms holding him almost helpless as she licked around her teeth. He moaned, growled, and then roared as his hips shot up off the bed with the force of his climax. They collapsed back against the bed, with her still on top of him, their bodies still joined. He glared at her as she looked up at him, his blood coating her chin.

"Bitch…"

"Asshole."

He grinned, remembering the feel of her ass against his cock. "Thanks for the suggestion, frail…its going to be a long night."


	11. Chapter 11

For all of you who have been waiting, its not as easy without a co conspirator to bounce ideas off of, but I've finally started something completely new, yes its Victor, a combination of Wolverine Origins Victor/Comicverse Victor.

I don't own them, and after watching the new Iron Man movie, I have Victor in my head after a long nap, awake and screaming so here we go again. They are the property of Marvel Universe with the exception of any original characters I create, and dear fans, you know I will.

Call this a Man Woman Wild with mutants if you will...well sorta, they aren't married and don't even like each other - yet.

Chapter 11

It had been a long eight and a half days, and about halfway through she'd really started to appreciate her healing factor. She lay half on his chest, her chin propped up on one hand as the other rested on his belly, feeling the rise and fall of his breath as he slept. She'd taken to watching him sleep, awed by the look of peace and the contented smile that happened when he relaxed.

"Sleep, woman." He muttered, his eyes opening halfway, and one hand covering hers on his belly.

"I did." She smiled at him.

"Hrmph." He closed his eyes again. "Why are you watchin' me sleep."

"I want to." She said.

"Makes me uncomfortable."

"Sorry."

She felt his hand in her hair, tucking her down against his shoulder, his head leaning down on top of hers to hold her in place. "Better."

She smiled, as the rumbling purr started in his chest. "So now what?" She whispered softly.

"Sleep." He muttered, "What do you mean, so now what?"

"Well…I mean we have to get out of bed sometime…I think they're tired of delivering food to the door." She grinned as she remembered the first food tray that had been left, sausage rare, just the way she liked it and pancakes with syrup, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, jam, jelly, and all kinds of spreadable coverings. The note on the tray had simply said "Keep it down already, there's kids on this floor." And was signed "Logan"

They'd made use of every one of the bottles and jars on that tray over the next few days, and food was delivered regularly, with continued pleas to keep it down from several members of the staff and student body. After the third tray, they'd heard movement on the floor and realized that Ororo was moving the students to other accommodations until things ran their course.

The thought of things running their course and stiffened, his arm tightened around her and she tried to relax again.

"What's got ya wound up frail?" He muttered.

"Just wondering when…" she shook her head slightly. "Never mind."

"Wonderin' when I'll take off on ya?" he growled.

"Yeah."

"Not any time soon…now shut up and get some sleep." He started to move, and she sat up, not even bothering to hold the sheet up to cover her. After the last week there wasn't an inch of her body he didn't know very intimately. "I need ta see McCoy, and after I do we need ta have a talk."

"Oh?"

"Yeah – I got a few questions for him, and can't make any decisions till I get some answers." At some point they'd picked up the piles of clothing around the room, and he pulled on a pair of trousers that halfway fit him. He grabbed a shirt and yanked it onto his arms and up onto his shoulders. She watched him dress, the anger evident in the lines of his body.

"What'd I say?"

"You still think I'm takin off. I told you, I'm thinkin' longer than just a few days…but you don't trust me, just like everyone else around here." He growled as she watched in fascination as he managed to button the shirt gracefully, even with his claws half extended in anger.

"I trust you, Victor, I just know your reputation, and you don't like to stay in one place very long."

"No…I never had a reason to stay in one place for very long." He snapped back, stalking back to the bed and forcing her back onto her back. "Now give me a reason to leave."

"I don't want you to leave." She saw the disgust on his face as tears welled in her eyes.

"Then quit the caterwaulin' and get dressed." He licked the tip of her nose. "I'm hungry woman, feed me."

She nodded, and jumped out of bed. Her room was near the back stairs down to the kitchen and from the sounds of the school, everyone was in classes at the moment, so they should have it all to themselves. She grabbed a pair of running shorts and started to pull them on when he snatched them, and handed her a black cotton thong.

"You're gonna wear this, and I'm gonna think about you wearin' it all day." He whispered as he knelt down and growled until she put her feet into the thong he was holding. He pulled it up slowly, running the tips of his claws up her legs and across her ass as he adjusted the thin strip of material. He pulled her close against him and she moaned and wondered if he'd let her drag him back to bed. His arousal was prominent along with his scent and she was ready to drown in the musk. He rubbed his cheek against hers and purred.

"Oh yeah…that's definitely going to give me ideas for later." He whispered, and slapped her on one bare cheek of her ass, "Now get dressed."

She pulled on the shorts and grabbed a tank top from a drawer and he growled his approval when she left off the bra. She glared at him and was reaching for her shoes when the screaming started downstairs. She bolted for the door but he beat her too it and she followed him toward the stairs. Logan was flopping around on the floor in the entry way, and Hank was trying to hold him down. Marie was backed against the wall, her hands at her mouth, screaming in pure terror.

"JIMMY!" Victor roared as he jumped over the banister and landed on the floor, helping Hank get Logan on a stretcher. Janelle ran down the stairs and grabbed Marie, trying to stop the screaming.

"MARIE!" Janelle screamed at her former student. The girl's eyes were glazed over, and panic was rolling off her in waves…as well as the scent of Logan and something else, something barely started. Jags realized that it was something missing, not added that caught her attention. The smell of that drug, the one that suppressed mutations, was gone from her scent.

She slapped Marie across the face, and even that brief contact told her that the girl's mutation was more than fully active again.

"All Ah did was kiss him." Marie started saying over and over again as she rocked against the wall in Jags' grasp.

"You nearly KILLED him!" Victor roared at her.

"VICTOR, stay out of this!" Janelle roared back, getting between him and the frightened girl behind her.

"LIKE HELL! He's my brother." Victor roared back. He started to charge and they ended up nose to nose, she wasn't backing down.

"Then get him downstairs and make sure he's alright. I'll deal with her, you big ass!" Janelle growled, ready to rip his throat out of he tried to hurt the girl.

"Guess McCoy was right…you got what you wanted." He snarled, and stormed off after the blue mutant and the stretcher.

"Idiot." She muttered under her breath. She turned back to Marie, who was calmer, the battle of wills between the two ferals seemed to have snapped her out of her panic.

"Now tell me what happened, Rogue." Jags said, trying to be calm instead of running after Victor to apologize.

"He was goin' out, had ta get somethin' in town, I kissed his cheek and it all came back…He's in mah head again, and don't blame me. I couldn't help it…" The tears were flowing down Marie's face.

"Okay, its back. Now we work on control." Jags said, confidently.

"I CAN'T…and its worse, stronger than before." Marie shouted at her.

"Yes you can…"

"NO, its mah SKIN, not like bein' able ta phase through walls or somthin that takes concentration." Marie was calming, and starting to think.

"And mine is as much involuntary as yours, and I can control every aspect of it. Do you think that Logan or Victor can control their healing?"

"No." Marie looked at her.

"Well I can…I can even just turn on and off parts of it, or just a little bit, or just enough to heal only certain types of injuries." Janelle looked at the girl. She'd tried to get Charles to let her work with her more before the attack on the school, but he seemed to think he could do more good with his telepathy. Well Charles was gone, and this girl needed her help.

"I tried to get Charles to let me work with you…and now you are going to get that skin of yours under control. Not right now. Right now we're going to check on Logan, right after you go get your gloves." She pushed the girl toward the stairs and growled and glared at the crowd of students around them. They backed off and let her walk slowly up the stairs. Jags just glared until they started to dissipate, and then headed to the elevator leading down to the medical bay.

"…wants me to leave now I guess, now that her estrus is over." She heard Victor saying as she stepped into the hallway.

"Wait to see, just because the feral mating urge is over doesn't mean she doesn't care for you and want you near, Victor. There is a human aspect you keep forgetting about." Hank said as she walked in the door.

"How's Logan?" She asked.

"He needs some sleep, she didn't drain him as badly as she did at Liberty Island, and his healing factor is recovering." Hank said, looking over at the prone man on the gurney.

XXXXXXX 

She put her hand on his arm, and he smelled regret and remorse rolling off of her.

"I'll leave tomorrow." He growled. "You belong here with them. I don't"

"Bullshit." She hissed at him and he could smell her anger now.

"I can smell ya, you regret the whole thing." He snarled.

"No, I regret hurting you, you were just trying to protect your brother, and not that he deserves it, in my book. You just need to understand that she loves him too, and wouldn't hurt him if she could help it, ever."

"What about us?" He growled.

"Well…I'm wearing that thong…just think about that." She leaned in and licked his chin, and rubbed her cheek against his. "Take care of your brother, I'll go fix us something to eat and bring it down." Marie walked in, covered from head to toe like she used to be. "And be nice to your sister-in-law…if you scare her too bad, you won't be an uncle."


	12. Chapter 12

For all of you who have been waiting, its not as easy without a co conspirator to bounce ideas off of, but I've finally started something completely new, yes its Victor, a combination of Wolverine Origins Victor/Comicverse Victor.

I don't own them, and after watching the new Iron Man movie, I have Victor in my head after a long nap, awake and screaming so here we go again. They are the property of Marvel Universe with the exception of any original characters I create, and dear fans, you know I will.

Call this a Man Woman Wild with mutants if you will...well sorta, they aren't married and don't even like each other - yet.

Chapter 12

He snapped and snarled and threatened to leave every time she got pissed at him, but she managed to convince him to stay. Logan recovered from Marie's skin reactivating and, against his wife's objections, was curled up with her on the couch, stroking her back through her shirt. Janelle watched for a moment, wishing for that kind of peace with Victor, but it wasn't ever going to happen.

He'd brought out something in her, something that she'd known was there but had been afraid to let loose, and she wasn't putting that genie back in the bottle. No one crossed her now, even her students were less likely to pull pranks in class, her temper wasn't to be crossed. Victor loved riling her up, said it was better when he had to prove he was in control. She laughed, the first time he said it, but he was right. Fighting with him, physically as well as mentally usually meant two or three days in bed with him reminding her who was dominant in this relationship...if you could call it that.

Hank said her breeding cycle was over, but she wanted him as much as she had in the beginning, and all she had to do was remind him she was wearing a thong and she'd find herself slammed against a convenient wall, her legs around his waist. Ororo had chastised her more than once about being caught in compromising positions by the students.

Victor and Logan - James - Logan, she still wasn't sure what to call him half the time, were still fighting, barely speaking. James still denied what Victor had to tell him, refused to accept being his family. Victor and Hank were trying to figure out why James's memory was gone. None of the machines they had could see through the adamantium to his brain, and Hank suspected there was something terribly wrong inside. Victor volunteered for every test Hank wanted to try, to see if he could find a way to help his brother. She never would have suspected, reading the file they had, that he cared as much as he did about James.

She clutched the stack of papers she needed to grade, the rec room wasn't going to be an option, not with Logan and Marie playing cuddle bunnies on the couch, probably talking about the baby, and how to get around her skin to have it. That had been daunting task Janelle had taken on. Marie was stubborn, would not let her help with trying to control the skin, at least not yet. Hank said to let her have this early time, to get used to the idea of carrying another life. Her maternal instincts would kick in, and she would want to get control soon, she just needed to get used to the idea of being pregnant first.

"Jags...you have a phone call." Ororo said, sticking her nose out of the administrator's office.

"Who is it?"

"Your father." Ororo stepped out of the office, and Janelle dragged her feet across the hallway. She didn't care how 'dominant' Victor thought she was, when it came to this, she was still a little girl trying to please him.

Ororo closed the door, and she picked up the phone on the desk. "Hello."

"Janelle, your mother is going in for more tests. We haven't heard from you in almost eight months. What the hell is going on with you?" He never was one for pleasantries, at least not with family.

"Things have been busy, Dad. The school went through a change of management, I've got more students than I can handle right now..."

"Then come home. You can teach here, and your mother needs you." He issued it as an order.

"There is something else. I met someone, you'd like him, retired Army, special forces. He helps teach physical education here." She hoped he'd like the idea of her being involved with someone. She heard the door open behind her and smelled Victor's confusion and anger behind her.

"You're running around, fucking some grunt, without getting married I assume, why the hell would I like him." her father snapped into the phone. A clawed hand yanked the receiver out of her hand.

"You listen to me, bub. I don't care who you think you are, Jags and I are just fine." Victor snarled.

"She's my daughter. Mine. Got that, grunt." She heard her father through the phone.

"NO! She's MINE! Got that, Sarge...and as soon as I can convince her to let me put a ring on that finger of hers I will...she's got a stubborn streak a mile wide." Victor snarled into the phone. She looked at him in shock...a ring, he was making it sound like not getting married was her idea.

"Fine, put my daughter on the phone, hey what rank are you, anyway?" Her father seemed to calm down a bit.

"Captain. Next question."

"Sorry, sir. Guess I can't complain if she's marrying an officer, put her on the phone." She just shook her head. How could he lie to him like that. 

"Creed's the name. Captain Victor Creed, 4th Psyop, if you want to check my record." He snapped into the phone. She couldn't believe him...he had to know her father would check.

He handed her the phone, glaring at her. "Dad."

"You bring that boy home with you, your mother and I will pay for the wedding. The Chaplin is a friend of mine, we can get you in at the base chapel as soon as you can get here. You quit jerking that boy around, Janelle. You can't do better than an officer." He was issuing orders again. "Your mother will pick you out a dress. I expect you here in two weeks." he hung up the phone without even a good-by.

"You had to lie to him, didn't you?" She snapped, hanging up the receiver.

"What lie...I retired, honorably, from the 4th Psyop...even served a tour in Iraq first. Just because most of my record is classified, doesn't mean there aren't parts he can check out." He snarled, backing her up against the desk, both hands resting on either side of her hips as she had to lean back. "Jags, I don't LIE...I might be a lot of things, and hell I'll take credit for every single damned one of them...but don't EVER ACCUSE ME OF LYING AGAIN!" He roared the last against her lips before he kissed her, hard, fangs cutting her lip and she just whimpered, afraid to touch him when he was this angry.

"Now..." he whispered against her cut lip, stopping to lick the blood away, and then glaring at her for shutting off her healing factor. She felt the switch in her head and turned it back on. He nodded, and licked her lip again. "Get packed. We're going to deal with your piece of shit father...and get married. Am I clear?"

"Married." She managed to squeak. "for us, till death do..." he shut her up with his mouth.

"I know..." He whispered against her lips. "Its a long time, I told you, I don't want to be alone again. You're my mate, and someday you'll get that through your thick head, you're mine, and if it gets that asshole off your back, I'll even do the frail human thing and go through some stupid ceremony, just to get you out of this frightened child act. Now fucking KISS me back or I'm throwing you over my shoulder and we're going to bed and you won't get those damned papers you're clutching so tightly graded." He snarled as his lips crashed down on hers again. She dropped the papers, and snaked her arms around his neck, moaning as she allowed herself to taste his mouth, allowed her own fear to recede enough to smell his anger - and lust - and need - and something else, something she'd only scented around Logan and Marie. She filed that away for further study later, right now...this was as close as she was ever going to get, and she still hadn't answered his proposal yet.

When he let her up for air, she leaned her head against his chest, and whispered "Yes."

"Yes what, frail." he snarled.

"Yes I will marry you." She whispered back.

"I wasn't askin." He stormed out of the office and left her to pick up the papers on the floor.

XXXXXX

He stormed into the rec room, glaring at James and his frail on the couch.

"YOU - get a fucking tux, you're coming with me." He snapped at his brother.

"Excuse me, Creed?" James glared at him, claws slipping out of the hand on the arm of the couch, he wouldn't do anything to hurt the frail, and the claws in the hand holding her were still sheathed.

"I need a fucking best man for a fucking frail wedding. You're my brother and by damned you're GOING to stand up for me."

"Oh like hell!"

"I don't give a shit what problems we have, you're my fucking BROTHER and you WILL be in my damned WEDDING!" He roared, storming out of the room.

"Doesn't he know what a question is." He heard the frail ask as he stormed to the elevator.

He needed a session in the Danger Room. First Jags thinking he was lying, now Jimmy giving him shit about being best man. He punched the button to the bottom level. He hadn't told her yet, but he'd even let Ororo fit him for one of those damned leather outfits...and it had arrived yesterday. He was zipping it up when she walked into the dressing room.

"WHAT!" She roared at him, and he was glad to get his jaguar back, the frail piece of shit upstairs just pissed him the fuck off. "WHEN the hell did you get that?"

"Yesterday, now shut up, frail I need ta blow off some steam." He snarled, pushing her out of the way.

"Well, its a good thing mine came yesterday too." She said simply, "And I've already got the Danger Room booked, so you can just wait."

"LIKE FUCKING HELL!" He snarled, slamming her back against a locker. "YOU are NOT going on missions - I am NOT going to sit home and worry if some dumb ass can get lucky and KILL you...I am NOT going to be alone again." He actually whispered the last, and cursed the salt sting in his eyes, had to be dust, and that wasn't his own damned fear he was smelling, it had to be hers.

"Victor, I asked her to make sure I only went on missions with you, so I could watch your back." She whispered...that was when it hit him, she'd set him up. She'd known he was joining the team. He wondered just how much else she'd figured out.

"I love you, Victor. I'm not going to sit home and worry about some dumb ass getting lucky and killing you. They'll have to get through me first." She whispered, kissing him again, her hands easing the zipper down his chest, her fingers stroking his skin and soft fur. He growled and shrugged the tight leather off his shoulders. The frail knew too much, he was going to have to remind her who was in charge. He extended his claws and shredded her shirt, hands stroking over bare skin, and growling until she released the soft down that should always be there. He was so glad she'd started going braless...he didn't have to worry about anything in his way once the shirt was gone.

"If you ever tell anyone I said this, I'll fucking kill you myself." He snarled against her lips, and she just smiled, damn her.

"You don't have to, I can smell it." She whispered. "I love you, too."


	13. Chapter 13

For all of you who have been waiting, its not as easy without a co conspirator to bounce ideas off of, but I've finally started something completely new, yes its Victor, a combination of Wolverine Origins Victor/Comicverse Victor.

I don't own them, and after watching the new Iron Man movie, I have Victor in my head after a long nap, awake and screaming so here we go again. They are the property of Marvel Universe with the exception of any original characters I create, and dear fans, you know I will.

Call this a Man Woman Wild with mutants if you will...well sorta, they aren't married and don't even like each other - yet.

Chapter 13

The entire trip was a bad idea from the beginning. First they'd argued about what to pack, he'd insisted he needed to get a tux, she reminded him that her father expected him to have his dress uniform available so he'd had to go find one of those and get it fitted. Then, James decided to buck against him and refuse to come, that had been a knock down drag out fight, and he still was wincing every time he moved, his back would heal, but damn those new claws hurt. James and Marie would follow in a few days, after Hank tried one more procedure to see if he could figure out what was wrong in James' head.

Jags was being a pain in the ass, one minute she was his mate, challenging him, fighting him for dominance, just like he liked…and then she was crying in a corner, stinking of fear and pain, and he had no idea how to deal with that frail crap. Ororo insisted they both pack their uniforms, just in case, and that had ended up in another fight, she wanted him to appear as 'normal' as possible for her parents, and he'd ended up tearing up the danger room after she'd refused to turn her fur back on for him, said she had to practice keeping it under control. He liked her damned fur, it felt good against him, reminded him she was like him, that he could go as far as he needed and didn't have to worry if she'd break on him. Hell, she pushed his healing factor more than once…or even twice, something he was very secretly proud of.

The airport had been the final straw. He couldn't get through the damned metal detectors with the new claws, and they had refused to allow him to get on the plane. She'd wanted to go back, see if they could borrow the jet, but James was going to need to use it to make it in time for the wedding, and he wasn't going to give his brother an excuse to miss it by taking the plane. He'd just stormed up to the counter, demanding to know where he could charter a plane, made a couple phone calls, and they were in the air three hours later.

He looked out the window of the plane. It was a five hour flight and he wasn't going to put up with the silence much longer.

"Jags, do you want to go or not?" He finally snapped at her.

"Honestly, no." She snapped back, that beat the whimpering frail any day of the week.

"Tough shit." He snarled back. "We're going, we're getting this shit over with, and you are going to tell him that you are coming back with me because I ain't moving my business so you can be there." He started giving her instructions. It was logical, cut her ties, get her the hell away from the abusive bastard, but he started smelling tears.

"NOW WHAT!"

"I told him you teach at the school."

"I know that, that don't mean I can't have a business that I don't want to move." He growled.

"And just how are you going to convince him of that? He'll check."

He growled low, she was getting close to calling him a liar again. "It's called Creed Industries, and it is an investment firm on Wall Street. I've owned it about forty years or so, how the HELL do you think I paid for this jet?" He was really getting pissed.

"What?" Jags looked at him, and he could smell her pure curiosity. "Victor I think we need to do something other than fuck every now and then. I had no idea."

"You never asked."

"Okay, I'm asking…what else don't I know?"

"I hate to fly. I'm doing it because YOU need to get this shit out of your system. I started CI to launder money originally, but I'm a damned good accountant and actually enjoy all the analysis, so I worked at it. Probably all those times your files showed me 'inactive' I was in the board room at CI. I have three degrees in Advanced Math, Accounting and Business Administration, Accounting and BA are PHds. I've never been married, never had more than a passing interest in anything frail before. I changed my will last month, if anything ever does happen to me; everything goes to you…that don't belong to James. I left a note for him, if he ever gets his damned memory back, its got the account numbers and pins, passwords and access codes for his accounts. He's half owner in CI."

"This is amazing…"

"WHY! I have something other than blood lust in my life?"

"Yes…I mean no…It gives me hope, that I can hang on to what and who I am and not have to let the animal take control." She said softly, fear scent spiking. He suddenly realized exactly what was bothering her, she was afraid she would end up like he was before.

"I've talked to Hank about that; you have a control that Jimmy and I never had. We don't know if it's just your mutation or if it was because you worked so damned hard to hide it, but you've got something we never had, complete control over your animal. Hank says I have it now, because of the metal and the allergy, it did something, pushed that part of my mutation back, gave me control over it. Yes that was something I struggled with; yes I fought it tooth and nail. I HAVE a life without the monster, I really do, and I want to share that part of my life with you too, you just haven't seemed very interested."

"I'm sorry…I only know what you've allowed me to see, or what we had in our files, and I've discovered a lot of those were wrong. I'm trying Victor, I'm trying to see you as something other than Sabretooth, but it's taking time."

"Well," he looked at the watch on his wrist "we have four more hours before we land, and this thing has a king sized bed." He wiggled his eyebrows at her, and she grinned, and surprised him by standing up, walking to the pilot's door, locking it and unbuttoning her blouse.

"Thought you'd never ask." She grinned.

"I didn't." He grinned back, slipping his suit jacket off, and leaving it in the chair. She pounced, running down the aisle of the main section of the plane, and he ran after her, the chase only adding to the growing pressure in his groin. His mate knew he liked to chase her down, now he just had to keep from getting the plane too bloody or he'd lose his cleaning deposit when they landed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jags looked around the airport. Her parents had to be here somewhere, they were picking them up. She was definitely more relaxed, even if Victor was bitching about losing the cleaning deposit on the plane. It was his fault; he'd been the one that couldn't resist biting her. She was just glad it also had a shower – and that she had a healing factor, or she'd be explaining why she needed an emergency room to her father. Not a good beginning.

She finally saw them and waved at her father, but he didn't see her. Victor came up behind her and saw where she was pointing.

"HEY SARGE! Down here." He roared, her father turned and started pushing through the crowd to get to them. She glared at Victor, she just wanted things as normal as possible. Her father could get ugly if things didn't go his way.

"Captain. Good to meet you finally." Her father was holding out his hand as he approached them. "Fine work in Iraq." Victor gripped his hand and she prayed her father wouldn't notice the claws.

"Janelle, so this is your fiancé?" Her mother asked, puffing up behind her father. She wanted to strangle him. Her mother didn't need to be out like this, not if the cancer was back, and Janelle could smell it.

"Yes, mom. Victor this is my father, Mitchell Arnold, and my mother Andrea." She said.

"Sergeant Major Arnold, at retirement." Her father said, glaring at her for forgetting.

"Sorry, Dad." She smiled, knowing she would probably have to deal with him when they got to the house.

"The car is this way. We were expecting you down at commercial." Her father said as she reached to pick up her bags. Victor glared at her and she let him pick up both their bags. Another thing she was going to have to deal with her father on when they got to the house.

"I couldn't fly commercial. Too much shrapnel from that IED; I chartered a plane." Victor said as he followed her father out to the old Jeep in the pickup lane.

"Where'd you get that kind of money, Cap?" Her father asked, "If you don't mind me asking." 

"Naa…I never had much use for it in the service, so I invested it. Started early, now I've got an investment firm, in New York. I had to do something when I retired." Victor said as he climbed into the jeep behind her father. Janelle winced; things were going to get ugly when they got to the house.

She sat in the back seat, dread filling her as they got closer and closer to the street her parents had moved onto after her father's retirement. Her father pulled the jeep up to the curb, and she noticed the new trailer and boat in the driveway. He had his toys, and she knew that he wasn't giving up his camping just because her mother was sick. She tried to keep the sneer off her face as she said "Nice RV, Dad."

"Thank you, kiddo." She knew she was in deep shit. He never called her kiddo unless he planned to beat the holy living hell out of her.

"You are in you're old room. Get your bags out of the car while I show Victor the boat." She moved to obey but Victor beat her too it.

"I'll come back down in a bit, Sarge." He grabbed both bags and she followed him up the steps of the porch. He was going to get her killed. She couldn't use her healing factor, not at full strength here, and her father was going to kill her if he didn't stop.

She followed him up the stairs; she could hear her mother drop heavily on the sofa in the living room behind her. She could smell the fear rolling off her mother, and knew Victor could too. He had to know he was putting them both in danger.

He put the bags on the bed, and gestured for her to shut the door.

"If you don't get the fear under control, I'm going to kill him before I can deal with this shit." He said calmly, shocking her. "I'm not going to let him hurt you or your mother while I'm here, he'll face these before he lays a hand on either of you." He flashed his claws at her.

"You should have let me load the bags, and sat in the front seat, and unload them…he'll kill me." She whimpered.

"I told you – over my dead body." He threaded his claws through her hair and pulled her close. They both could hear the footsteps in the hallway outside and he grinned before pulling her tight for a deep kiss as her father opened the door behind them.

"Enough of that…I need to talk to my daughter a few minutes." They both could smell the seething rage in him and she trembled against Victor's chest.

"Sure…say what ya got ta say. No one says anything to my girl without me there." Victor smiled, and she glanced up at him. She knew that smile, usually it meant something was getting hurt, and she hoped her father understood.

"There's just some rules…Janelle knows them, and needs to be reminded." Her father sneered at them.

"The only rules she needs to worry about, are MINE!" He hissed the last word at her father, and she could smell fear from her father. Maybe Victor could handle things, could get her father to back off.

"I understand that, Cap, just…under this roof, she needs to remember her place."

"Her place…is where I put her. She'll stay there, and like it." Victor snarled, this time she saw him flash his fangs and knew her father saw them too.

"Certainly, Cap. I'll leave her to you." She was shocked by the scent of satisfaction from her father. He had to have seen Victor's fangs…had to realize that something wasn't normal.

The door shut behind them, and neither one of them said anything until they both heard him down stairs, yelling at her mother to get him a beer.

"What just happened?" She asked, trembling.

"He backed down, thinking I'm as bad as he is, that I keep you in line the same way he did."

"What?"

"Part of my plan. I know a few things about abuse and abusers. If he thinks you're in the hands of someone like him, he'll back off, and go back to his original target, your mother. From the smell of things she's about to escape him anyway, I give her six months maybe less. The easy part is over. He'll back off now, leave you alone."

"Mom…"

"Has handled it this long, has had ample opportunities to escape, and he's afraid of her illness, afraid to hurt her too bad, she's seeing too many doctors, too many people to file complaints if he's too rough. I can't save her, but I can save you." She leaned against his broad chest, his arms wrapping around her and she let the fear ease a little. He would keep her safe, and after the wedding, she wouldn't have to come home again.


	14. Chapter 14

For all of you who have been waiting, its not as easy without a co conspirator to bounce ideas off of, but I've finally started something completely new, yes its Victor, a combination of Wolverine Origins Victor/Comicverse Victor.

I don't own them, and after watching the new Iron Man movie, I have Victor in my head after a long nap, awake and screaming so here we go again. They are the property of Marvel Universe with the exception of any original characters I create, and dear fans, you know I will.

Call this a Man Woman Wild with mutants if you will...well sorta, they aren't married and don't even like each other - yet.

Chapter 14

She opened the door, Marie and Ororo and Kitty stood there, in spring dresses, gifts in hand. Her mother was throwing her a bridal shower and insisted she invite her future sister-in-law and her friends over.

"How nice of you to come." Her mother gushed, as she led them to the table for the gifts. "Janelle still hasn't picked a maid-of-honor yet, I'm hoping she'll pick her best friend Nancy from high school, it would make her father so happy." Her mother wasn't being subtle at all, and Janelle wondered just how long that affair had been going on.

"I was planning on asking Marie…Victor would be pleased and we've become so close since the two brothers got back together." Janelle said softly.

"Well, dear, if you think your fiancé would prefer his sister-in-law I certainly understand, after all he will be the man of your house." Her mother said, but she could see the wince and smell the fear from her.

She smiled a desperate smile at Marie and Ororo. She knew they had no idea what was going on.

"Yes, Logan was asking me how'd I'd feel about it." Marie said.

"I thought your husband's name was James?" Her mother asked as she escorted them to the den where the games were set up

"It is." Janelle started, looking at Marie. "But he prefers Logan." Marie sat down in one of the easy chairs and Janelle and her mother both winced.

Janelle waited until her mother went to refill the punch – again. She knew that her mother didn't need the alcohol, but there was nothing stopping her today. "How did the treatment go?" She whispered to Marie and Ororo.

"Partially successful, they found one of the problems and fixed it. He's getting a few memories back at a time…he's still not happy with Victor, but he remembers at least that he's his brother."

"I'm not sure that is a good thing or not." Ororo said quietly. "He's remembering things they both did, and he is not happy about it one bit."

Janelle smelled her father before he walked into the den. He was drunk, something that had been a regular occurrence since she'd been home. He grabbed Nancy's ass, and she yelped in surprise. He leaned in and whispered in her ear and Janelle had to force herself to keep smiling and not wretch at the obscene comments she heard.

"So these are your 'friends' from that school of yours." Her father sneered as he walked over to where they were sitting. "Where is your mother, that whore?"

"In the kitchen." Janelle whispered, placing one hand on Marie's sweater covered arm, and looking at Ororo pleadingly.

"Andrea get your ass out here. It's time this bitch of yours remembered her place." Her father shouted. Janelle winced, fear filling her. Logan and Pete and Bobby had taken Victor out for a little away time so that the girls could have their shower, and now he wasn't there to protect her.

"Sir, Ah think you need ta calm down." Marie stood up, hand out to stop him advancing any further on them.

"Sit down, bitch." Her father shoved her back down in the chair, and Janelle suddenly wasn't afraid anymore. Marie didn't need this, not with the baby, and her skin, and now Janelle's father being an ass. Jags stood up, and faced her father.

"Leave my friends alone." She snapped, stepping between her father and Marie.

"Shut UP!" His fist hit her right in the temple knocking her to the ground. Her friends from school just jumped up and ran, except Nancy who seemed to be encouraging him for some reason.

"Come on Mitchell finish up so we can go." She whispered. Janelle was fighting for her control with every fiber of her being. She felt Marie stand up behind her and Jags struggled to her feet, he wasn't going to lay another hand on her sister-in-law.

"I said, leave my friends alone." She snarled, she felt her fangs lengthening in her mouth.

His hand started to come down, but was blocked by a chocolate one.

"She said leave her friends alone, I think she is trying to protect you, Mr. Arnold. Don't make me hurt you before the wedding." Jags looked at Ororo, her eyes were normal, but hard, as hard as Victor's could be when he was ready to kill. "Marie, take Janelle upstairs and see if you can do something about that eye, while I call Victor."

Janelle smelled the fear from her father at her mate's name. Marie took her arm and guided her to the stairs. From behind her she heard Ororo talking to her father.

"I hope that eye can be hidden, Victor won't like that you've hurt his mate, and I can't guarantee controlling him…the only person who can, I don't think is in the mood to keep him from killing you at the moment."

"I think you can heal it now." Marie said as she dropped onto the bed. "I know you said your father was bad…but this."

"I can't heal it, if I do, he'll know I'm a mutant and really try to kill me after you leave."

"Yeah and if ya don't, Victor's gonna kill him." Marie said simply.

"SHIT!" Janelle sat on the bed.

"Ah've got some makeup that might cover it, but he's gonna smell it…"

"Shit." Janelle wanted to curl up into a ball.

XXXXXXXXX

Victor stared down into his drink, the damned Chaplain had insisted that they go through counseling before the wedding, and recommended that they write their own vows. He was staring at a piece of paper, half soaked with condensation from the drink, the only word on the page seemed to say it all for him…MINE!

He couldn't think of anything else that he needed to say to her, needed to let her know. She was his, his mate, his to protect, to cherish when she'd let him, to fight with and to make up with. She belonged to him, every breath, every movement, every tear belonged to him, even when she was being weak and frail, she was still HIS!

"That ain't gonna cut it." Jimmy growled at him from across the table.

"It's all I got."

"You want me ta do it?"

"NO! It needs ta be me, but I can't seem ta think of anything else." He muttered as the bartender brought another round of drinks. Bobby was playing darts with Pete in the back of the bar, leaving the two brothers to discuss things.

"Nothing else…not how she smells first thing in the morning, how you wake up in the night if she's not there, wondering if she was a dream, a figment of your imagination. Sunlight on her hair, the sound of her voice when you know she's so pissed and you are in so much deep shit but you're so hard you feel like you're going to explode, just from the tone in her voice." He glared at Jimmy, fuck him.

"No I don't do that frail shit." He growled again…although that whole going to explode thing when she was pissed had merit, but it all came down to one thing, she was his.

His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out. It was Ororo's number, and he knew she was at the shower. "Yeah?"

"Your idiot father-in-law is drunk, he hit Janelle, she and Marie are upstairs, I've got him subdued for now, but I thought you might have a few things to say to him." Shit, Ro was pissed.

"We're on our way."

"Pete, Bobby, we gotta go." James shouted at the younger men. He threw some cash down on the table to pay for drinks and headed for the car out front.

"Back to Jags' parents house." Victor snarled his claws half out, wanting to rip something to pieces.

XXXXXX

She smelled him before he hit the door, the slam just an afterthought. She jumped up and ran down the stairs. He was going to kill her father, she just knew it.

"Victor." She yelled. He looked at her, and snarled, sniffing at her and she saw the disappointment in his eyes.

"You ain't walkin' down the aisle with that eye, Jags. Do somethin' about it, now."

"Victor, please." She begged. This time it wasn't a snarl but a full fledged animal roar as he crossed the room on all fours, slamming her back against the wall of the staircase.

"NOW! I'm sick of this frail shit, now either get rid of it, and get my mate out here ta deal with this shit, or you can fuckin' stay. There's only one male in your life now frail, but you gotta pick which one." He turned to her father, dropping her on the stairs.

"I told you, no one touches her but me, I thought I made that clear, Sarge." He snarled, fangs extended, claws out, and her father backed away, stumbling on the runner rug between the living room and the den and falling flat on his ass. He kept scrambling away from Victor as he advanced, fear and pure panic rolling off his body.

"VICTOR!" She roared, mutation springing out all over her body, her fur rippling as she crossed the room on all fours. "Let me." It was a plea, it was his place, but she had earned the right.

"That's my girl." He purred as she stepped in front of him. She smelled urine and grinned.

"YOU, tomorrow, will walk me down that aisle, you will give me to my mate and then you will disappear from my life forever. You will never touch my mother again. I'm putting her in a special hospital where she can live out the rest of her life with peace and without fear. IF I ever see your face after tomorrow, DAD, I will rip your guts out and feed them too you for breakfast."

"And I thought I was the one who was considered vicious." She heard Victor chuckle behind her.

"AND YOU!" She turned on her mate. "Don't ever do that to me again, next time you might not win the choice, especially if it's you or one of the cubs." She snarled.

"Nuhhuhh" He whispered as he pulled her tight against his chest, "You're mine, you'll always be mine, cubs are temporary."

"I hope you came up with something better than that for the ceremony." She snarled.

"Not yet."

"Then get the fuck to work, Creed. I expect some of that frail shit if I have to put up with you the rest of my fucking life."

"Yes ma'am." He grinned before kissing her hard.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

She glared at the man standing next to her. He hadn't said a word all morning, just glared at her, sneering at her obvious signs of mutation. She was going down that aisle in all her 'glory' as Victor called it, and never looking back. He'd proven one thing to her, if nothing else; she could stand up for herself, even against the one thing she feared the most.

The chords of music sounded, and she took the arm her father offered her, his face half covered in a bandage. It hadn't been just her who stood up to him last night. After they'd left and gone to the hotel, her mother had hit him with a bottle of vodka, and kept hitting him with the broken end. He'd spent the night in the emergency room.

She looked at him, standing there in Army Greens, James dressed the same, both wearing the rank of Captain and smiled. It was a good thing Hank's treatment had been partially successful. He'd used Kitty to try to find something that didn't belong in James's brain, and she'd found a small object near the back of his skull, She'd phased it out of his brain, and the small adamantium bullet seemed to give Hank a much better idea of what had happened to James. They still didn't get along, but James had remembered the relationship, and that he owed his brother at least this much.

Marie was lovely in her burgundy dress and gloves, and Janelle smiled at her friend. They still had the whole teaching her control thing to work on, but Jags had a good idea how to do it, it would just take a little time.

Victor smiled at her, fangs flashing and she smiled back. The church was empty except for their friends from the mansion, her mother and her father escorting her reluctantly down the aisle.

"Who gives this woman to be married?"

"Her mother and I do." Her father sneered, moving to sit down in his designated spot. He didn't even try to kiss her on the cheek. She stepped up into her place at Victor's side.

XXXXXX

Most of the ceremony he ignored until they got to the important part.

"Do you have something prepared to say to each other?"

"Yes." She whispered, and turned to look at him. He smelled the tears before he saw them, and winced a little, something close to fear burning inside him. "Victor, you saved my life, and I've saved yours, you challenged me and taught me to accept what I am completely, not just in parts. I know you probably only have one word to say, but I'm going to beat you to the punch. I'm yours."

He gulped. This wasn't going to be easy. After she'd gone to sleep last night he'd sat up all night trying to write what he wanted to say. It sounded stupid to him, frail and stupid, but he hoped she'd appreciate the effort.

"Jags, I've seen ya gut a tapir; I've seen ya cradle a child so sick you weren't sure it was gonna live. I've seen you come face to face with your worst fear and conquer it. I've given you my rage, my passion, my contempt at times, but right now I'm giving you something else…all of me. You are wrong, I have two words to say, but you did beat me to the punch…See babe, you got it wrong, I'm yours."

The rest of the ceremony was a blur until he was given permission to kiss her. She owned him, body and soul, and someday she'd realize just how much that meant, but for now, he hoped she'd just take him as he was.

He lifted his lips from hers, licking the light trace of blood from the corner, and smiling as it healed right up. "I love you, Jags, just don't get used ta me saying it." He whispered.

"I love you, Victor…and I won't." She licked the tip of his nose and they turned to be introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Victor Creed.


End file.
